A winning streak was extended, and a four-game point streak in the standings in the West was extended further to five games this regular season in the Pacific Division for the Los Angeles Kings (21-16-13) with a crucial 5-4 shootout win on the road on Saturday night this weekend vs. the St. Louis Blues (19-24-9).
Los Angeles Kings and Jim Hiller head out East on the road trip for five games this upcoming week after knocking down the St. Louis Blues in a 5-4 shootout win
The Kings and head coach Jim Hiller jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on the scoreboard yesterday vs. St. Louis on the road in the opening frame in the first period. The Blues pushed back to tie the game up on the scoreboard in the middle frame yesterday.
Hiller and the Kings got goals from forwards Alex Laferriere and winger Trevor Moore to eventually push the game to overtime in the final frame in the third period. Moore scored the game-winning goal in the shootout to extend the Kings' winning streak in the West to two games this past week.
Hiller gave his thoughts to the media yesterday after the big 5-4 shootout win to start this long road trip in the West over the Blues to extend the team's winning streak in the standings to two games.
The Kings and Hiller have also gotten points in the standings in the West in five consecutive games in this past couple of weeks this month in mid-to-late January.
Here's a look at everything Hiller said to the media postgame following the Kings' vital 5-4 shootout win on the road yesterday (Jan. 24) over the Blues in St. Louis.
Jim Hiller
On the impact Trevor Moore had on the game for the Kings yesterday vs. St. Louis
"Close to 20 minutes of ice time. Mooresie is such a reliable, dependable player, has been for a long time for the franchise. We clearly missed him, but he had to get healthy and you can just see how important he is to the team."
On how Moore started the game offensively for the Kings yesterday
"I thought he was dangerous from the start. He had the snapshot. He came off the wall with the backhand. So, I didn't notice any rust in his game whatsoever. He's been skating and working hard with Derek Johnson. So that part translated pretty well. I think Army was the same thing coming back. Jumped right in, played big minutes. I really liked his game tonight.
On his takeaways and reaction to the win yesterday vs. St. Louis
"We started good. Second period, the three goals in a short amount of time was really disappointing, when they made mistakes, obviously. So, when you make a mistake and it goes in, you want to hold it. We weren’t able to do that and gave them three, but I really liked the pushback after that, to tie it was important. I thought the third period was our best period. They scored a big one late, but the third period was good, we had other chances. It was nice to see the one go in, at least, to get us back ahead."
On how the Kings flipped momentum on the scoreboard when the team was down 3-2 yesterday
"Everybody was disappointed. The bench was pissed off, as we should have been. We just did a few things that were uncharacteristic of us. Frankly, if we play that style and it’s going the other way, we have a hard time outscoring those mistakes, so we have to play it pretty, clean, or else we’re going to have a tough time. We got four tonight, so that’s excellent, but we don’t get four on a lot of nights. The guys cleaned it up. They were mad, they cleaned it up and again, proud of the effort in the third to come out and play our best."
On Brandt Clarke sticking up for Corey Perry after the play vs. St. Louis
"You love to see it. I think Sammy Helenius has been showing us that too and back at it again tonight for Sammy. To see Clarkie jump in there, this is what Clarkie is. He’s an ultra-competitive player and that shows in a lot of different areas on the ice. That was just another example of it."
On Brian Dumoulin scoring his first goal of the season
"We were all happy for Dumo, for sure. It was just a simple indirect, and again, Corey Perry was standing in front of the goalie, but it was a good shot. It was a really good shot, up high in the net."