Anze Kopitar scores two goals as Kings rout the Blackhawks
Anze Kopitar had two goals and an assist, Cam Talbot made 22 saves and the Kings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-2 on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Alex Laferriere, Vladislav Gavrikov, Phillip Danault and Trevor Lewis also scored. Adrian Kempe had three assists and the Kings followed up their 5-0 win in Chicago on Friday with another big victory.
“This time of the year, the most important thing is to get the two points,” interim coach Jim Hiller said. “We needed somebody, and we were wondering who that was gonna be. Nice to see the big guys, and Kopi in particular with the two goals.”
Nick Foligno and Kevin Korchinski scored, and Petr Mrazek made 18 saves for the Blackhawks, who have lost 24 of their last 25 road games.
“That’s two games in a row that they showed us why they’re where they are,” Chicago head coach Luke Richardson said. “We got to make sure we continue to get better.”
The teams traded goals in the first period. That was far different from Friday’s game, when the Kings built a four-goal lead in the opening 20 minutes in Chicago.
Laferriere attacked the crease and put in Blake Lizotte’s rebound with 7:57 left in the period. The Kings gave back the advantage after an uncharacteristic mistake from their penalty-kill unit.
The Blackhawks had a two-man advantage when Kempe put the puck over the glass seven seconds into a power play. Foligno cashed in when Phillip Kurashev’s pass went in off his shin, tying the score at 1-1 with 5:33 to go.
“All due respect to Chicago, but we’re gonna play some better teams at the end of this stretch, and we can’t give a period away,” Kempe said of the slow start. “It could be a huge, huge difference in the points and all that kind of stuff, so we gotta be on for 60 minutes here.”
The Kings got going in the second, with Gavrikov putting them back in front 2-1 at 9:32 and Kopitar finding the net twice to stretch the lead to 4-1.
Kopitar has four goals and an assist in two games against Chicago. He has 1,199 career points, one away from becoming the 52nd NHL player with 1,200.
“We were looking out there for him,” Kempe said. “He had some good looks and it was close. Obviously, look forward to that next game, but it was a close one tonight. He was hot out there.”
Blackhawks forward Colin Blackwell sustained an apparent shoulder injury on a check from Kevin Fiala with 8:36 left in the third and did not return. Richardson did not have any update on the severity afterwards.
Kings center Alex Turcotte also sustained an apparent upper-body injury in the third and missed the final 7:43.
Up next
Kings host the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night.
