In Los Angeles, the Kings’ Viktor Arvidsson scored the first and last goals of the game on Saturday night, and LA defeated the Philadelphia Flyers by a 6-3 count.
Jonathan Quick made 34 saves in the LA win.
Arvidsson (four points) and his linemates, Trevor Moore (goal and four points) and Phillip Danault (goal and three points), accounted for 11 points on the night.
“A lot of it came because they did things well defensively,” Los Angeles head coach Todd McLellan said of the second line. “They checked well, they were patient, blocked shots … and then took advantage of their opportunities.”
LA improved to the Kings 16-12-5.
Arvidsson scored his first goal with just 12 seconds gone in the opening frame.
“That was nice to score that early,” Arvidsson said. “I just felt I had some room there, and the D was on the other side of the net.”
Joel Farabee, Kevin Hayes, and Ivan Provorov were the Flyers strikers.
“We generated some opportunities, but I thought we gave them too much tonight,” Philadelphia coach Mike Yeo said. “Playing on the road, you can’t be trying to score six goals to win a hockey game.”
Farabee scored 41 seconds after Arvidsson.
“Getting scored on the first shift is always tough,” Farabee said. “You’re behind the eight ball right away.”
Philadelphia dropped to 13-13-6.
Moore restored the LA lead in the 15th minute of the period.
“Nice to see ‘Moorsie’ get rewarded because he’s been snakebit a little bit throughout the season,” McLellan said. “For him to get on the board, personally, was good to see.”
Adrian Kempe hit for a power play goal on a two-man advantage to give the Kings a 3-1 lead in the first minute of the middle frame.
Brendan Lemieux extended the lead to 4-1 just past the midway point of the second period.
Hayes scored in the early minutes of the third period when the Flyers had their own two-man advantage and the goalie pulled for an extra skater.
“We’re down 4-1 at that point,” Yeo said. “If you score, you have a much greater opportunity to win the hockey game. Along with that, you get into a 5-on-3, it should be extremely difficult for them to shoot toward our net.”
Provorov scored in the third period as well, and LA countered with a strike from Danault and Arvidsson for the 6-3 final.
“We got a good start to the game, got a goal right away, and that got us going as a team as well,” Danault said. “It was ticking tonight, and we want to keep it going.”
Martin Jones made 28 saves in the Flyers loss.
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