Kings scoring struggles continue against Chicago

Jonathan Toews was back and so was the firepower that made the Chicago Blackhawks one of the NHL’s most dangerous teams in the season’s first two weeks.

Toews, who had been out with a concussion since Vancouver’s Willie Mitchell leveled him on Oct. 21, followed Troy Brouwer’s third-period power-play goal with one of his own 3:31 later and the Blackhawks went on to defeat the Kings, 4-1, on Monday night.

The Blackhawks lost three of the six games Toews missed. It had been nearly four weeks since they had scored more than three times in a game, and they hadn’t put in more than one power-play goal since the season’s second game.

“I felt great on the ice,” said Toews, who had a team-high 34 goals last season but has only two this year. “If you look at a lot of our games in the past couple weeks, they were low-scoring. We struggled a bit on the power play. That was the difference tonight.”

Toews, who also was on the ice for Brouwer’s goal, energized a power play that had converted on only three of its last 33 attempts. The Blackhawks had scored only four man-advantage goals at home all season.

“I’ve always said the power play can win you a game and penalty killing can lose you a game. And tonight, it lost us a game,” said Kings Coach Terry Murray. “[The Blackhawks] brought their work boots. They got a couple-goal lead and played prevent [defense].”

The Kings managed only 18 shots, including two in the third period.

The Kings rank third in the league with 58 goals but have scored just once in each of its last two games, both losses. The mini-slump followed a 6-0-2 stretch.

Anze Kopitar made it 1-1 with his 14th goal for the Kings, tying injured Washington star Alexander Ovechkin for the NHL lead. Kopitar, who leads the league with 28 points, has teamed with linemates Ryan Smyth and Justin Williams for 51 points in 13 games.

Andrew Ebbett, claimed off waivers from the Ducks last month by Chicago, scored his first goal with the Blackhawks with 10:40 to play.