Twenty-four hours after being deprived of ice by his failed Los Angeles coach, Jim Hiller, for missing a team meeting, Kevin Fiala (28 years old) reacted in the most beautiful way, with his skills of hockey player.
The day after an embarrassing defeat in San Jose (4-2) in the NHL championship, a duel fought without their Swiss employee, the Kings reacted during the night from Wednesday to Thursday by having the Las Vegas Golden Knights in their Crypto. com Arena (6-3). And their St. Gallen left winger weighed on the course of the match by registering his name twice on the scoreboard.
In the 47th minute, Kevin Fiala scored his fifth goal since the start of the 2024-2025 regular season by foiling the vigilance of Russia goalkeeper Ilya Samsonov with a sudden and precise wrist shot.
On this sequence, he exploited a pass for the story of Anze Kopitar. A quality service synonymous, for the Slovenian center, with the 800th assist in the North American professional league. The son of the former HC Martigny coach is only the fourth player still active, after Sidney Crosby (Pittsburgh), Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh) and Patrik Kane (Detroit) to reach this plateau.
Kopitar, the captain of the Kings, also praised the qualities of his white-crossed teammate: “He is someone who changes the course of the game.”
In the 49th minute, the Swiss international was at the origin of the 6-1 awarded to Manitoba defender Joel Edmundson.
After the game, he faced the media and discussed the episode of his suspension, a sentence he accepted. He added that he had a problem with his iPad’s alarm that didn’t wake him up.
In 10 matches, he has a record of 5 goals and 3 assists.
NHL. Wednesday’s matches.
Los Angeles – Las Vegas 6-3
Vancouver – New Jersey 0-6
Columbus – NY Islanders 2-0
