Kings salvage road trip with victory over the Vancouver Canucks
Drew Doughty and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and two assists and the Kings snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore both had a goal and an assist for the Kings. Rookie Brandt Clarke scored his second career goal while Quinton Byfield also had two assists.
“We played great right from the puck drop,” said Doughty, who has 501 career assists. “I was so proud and so happy with our team’s performance tonight. Every single player played well. There wasn’t one dog out there and that’s why we won.”
After 47 years as a sportswriter, the last 34-plus of those at the Times, Hall of Fame columnist Helene Elliott’s last day will be Tuesday.
Brock Boeser scored on the power play for the Canucks. They have lost two in a row and six of their last seven (1-5-1) but continue to lead the Western Conference.
“I don’t think we gave them much,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “It’s just the fact what we gave them was egregious.”
Kings goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 22 shots, while Thatcher Demko made 15 saves for Vancouver.
“That was definitely the best 60 (minutes) of the year for us from start to finish,” Talbot said. “I can’t think of one fault in our game. That’s what it takes to win in this league every night.”
The Canucks opened the third period when Boeser rifled home a pass from J.T. Miller for his 35th of the season at 2:55, making the score 2-1. It was Vancouver’s third power-play goal in 38 attempts over 12 games.
The Kings restored their two-goal lead just 1:32 later on their own power play. Kopitar took a long shot from just inside the blue line that Fiala slapped into the empty corner of the net from behind the goal line.
Clarke made it 4-1 at 12:31 and Moore made it 5-1 on a breakaway with a shot that trickled in off Demko’s pad at 15:38.
The Kings went ahead 2-0 early in the second on a heads-up play by Byfield. He took a pass from Doughty, skated behind the Canucks goal, then passed to an open Kopitar, who beat Demko with a high shot at 5:14.
Doughty gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with a slap shot through traffic that beat Demko on the stick side at 13:19 of the first period.
Kings leading scorer Adrian Kempe missed his second straight game and returned to Los Angeles to evaluate the wrist he injured Monday in Edmonton.
Up next for the Kings: vs. the New Jersey Devils at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday.
