Kevin Fiala and Quinton Byfield scored goals and the Los Angeles Kings earned a much-needed 2-1 victory over the visiting New York Rangers on Saturday to spoil the return to L.A. of goalie Jonathan Quick.
David Rittich made 22 saves for the Kings in his sixth start of the season as Los Angeles won for just the second time in its last 12 games (2-6-4). Rittich improved to 4-1-1.
Quick made 24 saves for the Rangers in his first start against his former team. Quick won two Stanley Cup titles in 16 seasons with the Kings and won another after he was traded to the Vegas Golden Knights last season.
New York has dropped the opening two games of a four-game road trip, while scoring one goal in each contest, and is 2-5-1 since Jan 6.
The Kings went on the attack in the first period, outshooting the Rangers 12-2. Fiala gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead with 34.4 seconds remaining in the opening period when he took a centering pass from Trevor Moore and skated around the over-committed Quick to score his 11th of the season.
The Rangers tied the game 1-1 at 14:39 of the second period on Chris Kreider’s 21st of the season. Adam Fox sent a diagonal pass from the top of the right circle as Artemi Panarin jumped over the puck while in the slot. Kreider redirected it into an open net from the left side of the Kings’ goal.
Again the Kings delivered late in a period scoring 1:47 before the second intermission. Los Angeles’ Jaret Anderson-Dolan nearly scored past Quick before the Rangers’ K’Andre Miller cleared the puck off the line right to Byfield, who scored his 13th.
The Kings had to kill a Moore high-sticking penalty over the final 1:39 as the Rangers went 6-on-4 for a majority of the time after Quick was pulled from goal. New York went 0-for-3 on the power play, including 0-for-2 in the third period.
–Field Level Media
