In Los Angeles, after a scoreless first period, the Kings sandwiched two goals around a strike from the Anaheim Ducks in the second period en route to a 4-1 win.
Drew Doughty (power play and Alex Iafallo scored for the Kings, in between, Frank Vatrano scored the Ducks lone goal of the game for a 2-1 lead to the Kings after two periods.
Pheonix Copley made 24 saves in the win.
“Our team’s playing better right now in front of Pheonix than we did in front of the other two,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “And when it’s time for ‘Quickie’ to go back in, or Cal [Petersen], or whoever it might be, I certainly expect and I’m sure the players expect that type of performance in front of them as well.”
Vatrano’s strike was off the power play.
“We’re not a team that scores a whole lot, and having the other team have an extra guy on the ice is not a good plan,” Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said.
LA improved to 18-12-5 on their third straight win.
“We had a good thing going there, a couple wins in a row coming into a rivalry game,” Anaheim defenseman Cam Fowler said. “We would have liked to have a better showing than that tonight, but give them credit. They did a good job capitalizing on their opportunities, and that was the difference in the game.”
Viktor Arvidsson and Kevin Fiala scored in the first half of the third period for the 4-1 final score.
“It was good that everybody bought in,” Iafallo said. “Everybody’s kind of making small plays, talking out there, talking in the locker room. We got to keep doing that going into Christmas break.”
Anaheim dropped to 9-23-3.
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Lukas Dostal made 37 saves in the Ducks loss.
“I really thought through two we were right there,” the Ducks’ Cam Fowler said. “Obviously, you don’t want to give up a goal there in the last minute of any period. But still, even with that, we were in a good spot. It just wasn’t a good third period at all; that was kind of just the difference in the game.”
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