At least for one evening, the Los Angeles Kings’ move to call up Gabriel Vilardi paid off with a goal and an assist in a well contested 5-4 win over the visiting Florida Panthers.
“There’s no secret what is going on here,” Vilardi said. “They are trying to get younger, and hopefully I can be a part of that and help the team.”
Drew Doughty had a goal for the Kings – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Jonathan Quick made 25 saves in the win.
Aleksander Barkov struck for a pair of goals for the Panthers.
“I thought we were looking to cut some corners here and there,” Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville said. “We took some discipline penalties, probably every one we got tonight, and deserved ’em all.”
Jonathan Huberdeau and Mike Hoffman had single markers for Florida.
“We gave up five goals again. We need to do better defensively. This is a team that we could have beat, and we were there until the end.” — Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau
Trevor Moore, Martin Frk and Drew Doughty also scored for the Kings.
“They were all up on their feet,” LA head coach Todd McLellan said. “Really, first of all, they were excited he (Vilardi) got called up. They know his story, they know his struggle to get back healthy, the work he has put in. To have him play tonight, everybody was excited for him. To have him score eight, 10 seconds in was remarkable, and it affected the bench.”
Ben Hutton scored the deciding goal in the middle stages of the third period.
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Kings highlights]
Sergei Bobrovsky made 35 saves in the loss.
“Obviously, they were good, scored some goals tonight and they got the rebounds,” Huberdeau said. “But I think it’s more on us. We scored some goals, but we have to be better.”
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