The LA Kings improved their record to 3-1-1 on their current road trip after earning a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Kings scored first as their most dangerous line brought the visitors onto the field in the early stages. Forward Phillip Danault hit a rushing Kevin Fiala in the middle of the ice, allowing the Swiss winger to get one step behind the Philadelphia defense. Fiala calmly hit the backhand, worked his way through with a hook from behind and scored the first goal of the game, his eleventh goal of the season.

Philadelphia came back to tie the game with a backhand goal later in the half. Bobby Brink was working in the offensive zone, drawing a crowd to him on the boards, but managed to get a pass to Cates coming down through the slot. Cates turned on his backhand and lifted his shot over the ball from Kings goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper to score, leveling the score for the hosts.

Just 91 seconds into the second period, the Kings took the lead for the second time in the game thanks to forward Tanner Jeannot. Forward Warren Foegele brought the puck into a dangerous area in the goal crease and after a scramble, Jeannot scored from close range to put the visitors back in the lead, this time 2-1.

Forward Tyson Foerster scored two goals later in the second period, turning a 2-1 Kings lead into a 3-2 deficit.

First, shortly after the Kings had the first power play of the game, defenseman Jordan Spence was unable to hold the offensive zone, resulting in a 2-on-1 play the other way. Kümper almost blocked the puck, but after another turnover later in the sequence, Foerster scored just outside the goal crease to tie the game at 2-0.

Shortly after Philadelphia had its first-man advantage, he made it 3-2 for the Flyers. Foerster shook himself off in front of the net and, when left unmarked, finished off a centering shot from forward Morgan Frost for his second goal of the night, his eighth of the season, giving the hosts their first lead of the game.

In the final minute of the second period, the Kings found a way to tie the game when captain Anze Kopitar pushed the puck over the goal line for the equalizer. After winning the face-off and guiding the puck back to the point, Kopitar went to the net and got just enough rebound to send it over the line, past Flyers goaltender Aleksei Kolosov and for the game-winning goal.

The visitors scored again early, this time in the third frame, to take a one-goal lead for the third time of the night. Spence fired a shot from the right point that initially deflected off a Flyer defender before forward Warren Foegele caught a block and sent it into the net for his ninth goal of the season, giving the Kings a 4-3 lead.

Midway through the third period, Kopitar doubled the lead and scored again right at the net. This time it was Alex Turcotte who got the game going as he shot out with pace and directed a saucer pass across the goal area perfectly to Kopitar at the back post where he scored his tenth goal of the season. This makes it 19 consecutive seasons with double-digit goals for the captain.

Striker Quinton Byfield made it 6-3 with an unanswered goal before Kevin Fiala made it 1-0 with his second goal off a fine assist from striker Alex Laferriere, taking us to the 7-3 final.

After today’s win, hear from Danault, Foegele and head coach Jim Hiller.

Warren Foegele

Phillip Danault
Whether today’s win was just about finding a way to get the job done
Yes, we didn’t play our game. They found a way to play their game, a lot of up and down the ice, a lot of 2-on-1s and stuff like that. We just played our Kings game in the third game and were rewarded for it.

For discussion in the second break and what has changed.
Yeah, let’s just go back to our game. We didn’t play the first two periods of the game and in the end we got our result. We brought it up in the second break, we all dealt with it and we all responded. It was a great team win and Darce was solid in net too.

His aim is to score two goals tonight and get the reward they deserve
It’s been that kind of year. Loops, look good and it doesn’t go in easily. Nice to be rewarded from where we were tonight.

About how important it is to get the two points tonight, at the late end of a road trip
Gigantic. You could tell they had a lot of momentum, they were hungry, they played hard, but we just found a way

Jim Hiller
On his biggest takeaways from today’s win
Two things. The two takeaways I can take away are Kopitar’s goal at the end of the second period, a very big goal for us because we had lost all our momentum, so that was a big turning point in the game. We were happy with the third half, in which we lost a lead in Pittsburgh. We played so well in the thirds and tonight I thought our third period was obviously our best. Not to mention the goals, but we played the game hard, we controlled, we limited the ball losses, and of course the odd players too. So I was really happy with the third one.

About Anze Kopitar’s two big goals that contributed to the win
Being his age and playing against the other team’s best players night after night and then also contributing offensively and leading the team at the same time, I don’t know, that’s really, really difficult. I know it’s hard to make it at 25, let alone 37.

About what changed for the team between the first 40 and the last 20 minutes
We don’t want to go into details, but I just think we started the game, maybe the first ten minutes, playing our game, which we call Kings Hockey, and then it was just a question of whose game We were going to play in the third period and I thought we played our game. Once again I’m really happy and proud of the boys that they were able to come out like that in the third game and play our game.

I see the Danault line being rewarded tonight for their play of late
Yes, two really nice goals. I think this phrase has been pretty good for a while now. I don’t think they scored that many goals relative to their chances, but they just played good hockey. I think they were probably the most consistent line on the road trip. Yeah, nice to see the puck go in for Kevin. We know how many breakaways he had this year and what kind of play Laf had behind the back at the end. It’s good, yeah, it was just good to see some guys score some goals.

About an appreciation for Tanner Jeannot’s physical brand of hockey
He also scored a big goal at the net front. I thought he would block, just the meat and potatoes part of the game, blocking shots, getting pucks out, completing checks and being present after the final whistle when needed. All of these things make him a unique player in the league and we are lucky to have him.

Notes –
• Captain Anze Kopitar (2-0=2) extended his points streak to a third game with his two goals tonight, increasing his league-leading points total to 37 this season (10-27=37).
• Kopitar has now found the net 64 times since turning 35 on August 22, 2022, joining Bob Nevin (64-113-177) as the most players 35 or older in Kings history, according to NHL PR. .
• Forward Kevin Fiala (2-0=2) opened and closed the scoring tonight with his second and third goals of the road trip, his eleventh and twelfth goals of the season. Since making his debut with the Kings on October 11, 2022, Fiala has now scored multiple points in a game 47 times, the third-most on the team behind Kopitar (50) and Adrian Kempe (50) during that span.
• According to NHL PR, Nino Niederreiter (30) and Timo Meier (27) are the only Swiss-born players to have more multi-goal games than Fiala (24).
• Forward Warren Foegele (1-1=2) scored his ninth goal of the season and eighth assist tonight at Wells Fargo Center and has four points (2-2=4) in his last three games. Tonight’s contest marked Foegele’s fifth multi-point game of the season, the most the 28-year-old winger has scored at this point in a season in his career.
• Striker Tanner Jeannot (1-0=1) scored his fourth goal of the season. In six career games against the Flyers, Jeannot has six points (3-3=6), including a game-winning goal, and two pentacles.
• Forward Quinton Byfield (1-0=1) extended his point streak against the Flyers to the fourth straight game (1-5=6), dating back to January 24, 2023.
• Defenseman Jordan Spence (0-2=2) recorded his second and third assists in the last three days at the Keystone State, his seventh assist of the season.
• Defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov (0-2=2) had two assists tonight, the same stat as Tuesday in Pittsburgh. With his two performances, the blueliner sets the first multi-point game series of his career (0-4=4).
• Forward Alex Laferriere (0-2=2) picked up two helpers at the Wells Fargo Center and now has three points in as many career contests against Philadelphia (0-3=3).
• Defender Jacob Moverare (0-1=1) recorded an assist on Foegele’s winning goal, earning his first point of the season in his 14th game played.
• Forward Alex Turcotte (0-1=1) extended his point streak to a third game (2-2=4) with his fifth point on the road trip.
• Defenseman Brandt Clarke (0-1=1) tied Kempe for second-most assists on the team by scoring his 15th of the season tonight.
• Forward Philip Danault (0-1=1) picked up his third point in his last four games (1-2=3). Danault now has 10 assists in 18 career contests against the Flyers, the second Kings forward to have double-digit assists against Philadelphia after Kopitar (12A).
• Defenseman Mikey Anderson played his 300th career NHL game tonight against the Flyers. Anderson was drafted in the fourth round (103rd overall) in the 2017 NHL Draft and is the sixth defenseman from his draft class to reach the 300-game mark, the 19th skater from his cohort to do so overall.
• Goaltender Darcy Kuemper stopped 23 shots tonight, improving his season record to 8-2-4.
• According to NHL PR, the Kings recorded their 19th regulation win, tied with Winnipeg for second-most wins this season. New Jersey (20) is the only team with more.

There are no on-ice practices scheduled for the Kings tomorrow. The team returns to the ice on Saturday, December 21st at 12:30 p.m. local time and 10:30 a.m. Pacific time against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.