In Las Vegas, the visiting Los Angeles rolled out a rare offensive outburst and scored four goals in the first period Thursday night, to defeat the Golden Knights, 5-2.
Jack Campbell made 44 saves to backstop the offense.
“You don’t have to get amped. You’re in Vegas. It’s showtime,” Campbell said. “It’s pretty fun to play here and be in this city, and the fans they have and the team they have. You don’t have to try to psyche yourself up. It’s just such a fun place to play.”
Max Pacioretty and Reilly Smith scored for the Knights.
“If they score four goals in the first period, they’re going to sit back the rest of the game,” Smith said. “They’re on a tail end of a back-to-back and we’re playing at home. We should never lose to the Kings in a situation like that. We deserved to lose tonight.”
Adrian Kempe struck twice for the Kings.
“Same old story, isn’t it?” Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant said. “No excuse that we can’t be ready. We were down 4-0 in the game. The first period was awful. It’s embarrassing.”
Alec Martinez and Ben Hutton also scored for the Kings.
“We talk about momentum swings. We wanted to try and take some of the momentum away from them early and calm everything down,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “We were successful with that, but we gave a lot of it back in the second and third. Good goaltending and poise down the stretch helped us pull it off.”
Tyler Toffoli scored in the first period for LA.
“You can’t say enough about our start,” Campbell said. “When we score first, it’s amazing how well we can play. I know they made a big push in the second period, but we showed a lot of character coming back in the third. It’s just a big win.”
[WATCH:Â All Kings vs. Golden Knights highlights]
Malcolm Subban made 18 saves in the loss.
“We’re never going to quit, but at the same time, we can’t look at these games and be proud about anything,” Pacioretty said.
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