In Los Angeles, Pierre-Luc Dubois hit for a double in the middle frame on Tuesday night to help send the Kings to an easy 5-1 win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
“Yeah, I still think I can play better,” Dubois said. “It’s a long season. The start wasn’t exactly what I wanted. I want to get to a point where every game I have my A-game. The next couple months are going to be huge. I want to finish the season strong.”
LA took a 1-0 lead in the opening stanza on a strike by Quinn Byfield at 18:22 of the period. It was his 18th of the campaign.
“’Q,’ he can really skate, so despite us not having legs as a team,” LA coach Jim Hiller said. “Q’s going to give us energy and skate. He always does that. We knew what we were going to get. We didn’t know he’d go through two guys and bury it on his backhand.”
Cam Talbot made 33 saves in the win.
The Kings improved to 28-16-10, and are on a four-game win streak.
Adam Boqvist was the lone striker for the Blue Jackets, his goal came between the Dubois double in the middle frame to send the game to the third period with the Kings up, 3-1.
The Blue Jackets dropped to 17-27-10.
“It’s hard to win in this League,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said. “It’s hard to win when you’re in a growing process. To sustain multiple wins in a row, it’s a tough thing to do. And we know after the All-Star break, the League just gets harder and harder.”
The Kings potted two more goals in the third period.
Kevin Fiala scored off the power play at 15:56 for a 4-1 lead to LA with a wrist shot from the right side.
“Special teams is so key,” Columbus’ Damon Severson said. “On both ends of it, power play and penalty kill hasn’t been great for us, and so, no hiding from it. … The thing is we have looks on the power play, we have chances to kill plays on the penalty kill, and we’re just not quite getting it done.”
Drew Doughty added the second of the period with 23 seconds left on the clock for the 5-1 final count on the scoreboard. 
Elvis Merzlikins made 31 saves in the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.