Hard to know where to start. On Saturday night in Los Angeles, Pheonix Copley made 25 saves in a 6-0 shutout of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Or the first line could have been Adrian Kempe scoring four straight goals in a 6-0 win over the Penguins.
“One of those nights when the puck keeps coming to you, and I think I had chances for five, six too, so yeah, just one of those nights,” Kempe said.
The Kings improved to 29-18-7.
Former Kings’ Dustin Brown was honored ahead of the game with the retirement of his number, and a statue revealed.
“I think that after watching the Dustin Brown ceremony and having the Stanley Cup come out, if you didn’t have a spark to play already, it put a little more into the game,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “The guys played well. They were rested, they were fresh, executed well and did some of the things we didn’t do in Pittsburgh (a 6-1 loss on Oct. 20).”
The Kings took a 2-0 lead in the first period on single markers from Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Alex Iafallo.
“I thought we had a decent start,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “It came down to giving up too many good chances. Once you get down, it is hard to get back.”
Anze Kopitar had three assists in the game.
Kempe scored his natural hat trick in the second period to balloon the LA lead to 5-0 after two periods.
The Pens dropped to 26-17-9.
“Although we made good decisions for the most part, we come out on the wrong side of the score,” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “They got that third goal early in the second, and it was tough to overcome that.”
Kempe finished off his night with a goal in the third for the 6-0 final.
“Obviously, expectations go up after last year (scored NHL career-high 35 goals), not only for myself but as a team, and I think we’ve been getting better and better throughout the year,” Kempe said. “We got to keep this going for the last 28 games, and then the fun things start after that, and that’s where you got to be good. It’s important to keep my scoring up as much as I can.”
The four-goal performance was the first since Brown did it in March of 2020.
“It was a special night for [Brown] and for us as well, so we’re happy that we got the win for him,” Kempe said.
Casey DeSmith got the start for the Penguins but was given the hook in the second period after yielding three goals on 15 shots.
Dustin Tokarski made 13 saves in a mop up role.
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