Following a scoreless first period in Los Angeles on Thursday night, the Kings reeled off four straight goals in a nine-minute span in the middle frame en route to a 4-1 win over the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
Pheonix Copley made 29 saves in the LA win.
The Kings improved to 40-20-9, and moved to within one point of the Vegas Golden Knights atop the Pacific Division; Vegas lost to the Calgary Flames, 7-2, on Thursday night.
Drew Doughty got the Kings offense rolling in the second when he scored for a 1-0 lead.
“I don’t think we’ve given up a ton of goals,” Doughty said. “That’s the way we’ve got to win games. We’re not a high-powered offense. Yes, we’re better [on] offense, but we still got to play good defense in order to win games.”
LA has an active eight game point streak at 7-0-1.
Anze Kopitar and Viktor Arvidsson scored in quick succession for a 3-0 lead.
“You look at the goals that we got; ‘Kopi”s was a real nice touch play, but Carl’s was a simple shot, ‘Dewey’ bullied his way to the net, so those were aggressive goal,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “Shooting goals, and that’s good for us to have in our game right now.”
Carl Grundstrom finished the outburst for a 4-0 advantage to the Kings headed to the third period.
“I’ve really been impressed with ‘Grunny,'” Doughty said. “I think he’s been playing great, playing hard. He’s probably the hardest forward to play against when you play against our team because he’s so physical and strong.”
The Blue Jackets dropped to 1-39-7.
“We got stubborn in some areas,” Columbus coach Brad Larsen said. “The puck management, it caught up to us in the second period. The first three goals are just blatant turnovers in the neutral zone.”
Columbus’ Kirill Marchenko scored at 4:31 of the third for the 4-1 final.
“I don’t think about goals,” Marchenko said. “I start with scores (of the game).”
Daniil Tarasov surrendered all four LA goals and made 23 saves before getting the hook in the second period.
“We put him in bad positions,” Larsen said. “I felt bad for him because he deserved better.”
Michael Hutchinson made nine saves in relief.
You must be logged in to post a comment.