In Chicago, the ere was another Pierre-Luc Dubois sighting for the Los Angles Kings on Friday night.
“I’m going to tell you this: It’s always high stress when you’re standing back there (behind the bench),” Los Angeles interim coach Jim Hiller said. “… It was great to get off with the lead. But what we saw was [Talbot] had to make two or three big saves early. It could’ve been a different game, so credit the goalie there, and nice to see the puck go in for us. We had a lot of good chances [in a 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday], so we wanted to play the same offensive game, just clean up a couple of mistakes. It was nice to see the puck go in for us.”
Dubois hit off the power play at 3:10 of the opening stanza to give the Kings a 1-0 lad over the Blackhawks.
The goal was significant beyond Dubois scoring his 15th of the campaign, it was all the offense Cam Talbot needed in a 5-0 shutout of the Hawks.
Talbot made 28 saves in the win.
The Kings improved to 34-21-11.
After Dubois scored, the Kings added three more in the first period.
Alex Laferriere pushed the lead to 2-0 at 5:33, scoring off a deflection of a shot by Matt Roy.
Anze Kopitar then went to wok for LA, scoring a double in the first period.
His first came at 8:03, scoring off a wrister from the right circle.
He collected his double at 14:19 for a 4-0 lead over the Blackhawks.
“It’s not the first time it’s happened to us,” Chicago’s Jason Dickinson said. “It’s something we’re all-too-familiar with, and we need to be a lot better in the first period coming out and, even if we don’t have our best, finding a way to get out of the period 1-0 or 0-0 or 2-0, whatever it may be, so we can give ourselves a chance in the second and third periods. Once you give up four like that, it’s a tough task against any team.”
Chicago dropped to 18-44-5.
“The L.A. Kings. It was a little bit of both tonight,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “I think we didn’t probably have our best game, but they really played well, and they’re a big, heavy team. We had a hard time winning puck battles. I think that was a big difference tonight.”
Jordan Spence potted his first marker of the season at 2:33 of the middle frame, scoring off a rebound from below the right circle for the 5-0 final count on the scoreboard.
“Yeah, every game I go in, and it’s always in the back of my head, trying to score,” Spencer said. “But obviously getting that one out of the way, it feels really good and obviously the boys were pretty happy about it, too.
“Going from now on, I’m not as stressed anymore, getting the first one out of the way. But at the end of the day, we’re trying to make the playoffs, and we’re trying to get the two points. In order for me to do that, I just have to keep doing my job and trying to contribute as much as I can.”
Arvid Soderblom got the start for the Blackhawks, he made made 10 saves through 14 minutes of the first period. He surrendered four goals to the Kings in that span.
Petr Mrazek made 22 saves in a mop up role. .
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