Kopitar gets Kings rolling with first-period snake eyes
KINGS 4, VEGAS 1
LAS VEGAS — Anze Kopitar scored twice, rookie Calvin Petersen made 42 saves and the Kings beat the Vegas Golden Knights 4-1 on Sunday night.
The Kings improved to 62-1 in their last nine games, a winning stretch that came on the heels of a 1-9-1 skid.
The Kings, last in the Pacific Division, snapped Vegas’ franchise record-tying eight-game win streak. The Golden Knights hadn’t lost since Feb. 11.
“They were kind of hot, so we wanted to come in here and have a good performance,” Petersen said, “and I think everybody did their job.”
It marked the third straight game Golden Knights fans were treated to an exceptional goaltending performance, after MarcAndre Fleury registered the 61st shutout of his career and Robin Lehner won his debut with Vegas. This time, however, the crowd of 18,419 watched Petersen improve to 2-0-0 against Vegas.
Petersen was brilliant in stifling the Golden Knights’ normally potent offense that clearly was missing Mark Stone, who is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Of his 42 stops, 19 came in the third period.
“I made the saves I needed to make, and it worked out,” Petersen said.
It was the second straight game Petersen held a playoff-contender to just one goal, after beating Pittsburgh on Wednesday, when he stopped 36 shots. The 25year-old was making just his sixth start of the season — all since Feb. 8.
“We’re playing for pride and we’re playing for jobs next year, especially for the young guys,” said Petersen, who is 3-3-0 with a 2.68 goalsagainst average and .926 save percentage this season. “It’s a great opportunity to get games in and play an important role. We’re trying to establish a foundation for next year and years to come, so I think it’s a really important time for us.”
Trevor Lewis and Alex
Iafallo also scored.
Fleury came in riding a 50-0 win streak since Feb. 15, along with a 1.60 goalsagainst average and a .942 save percentage, but Kopitar cooled off the 16-year-veteran netminder by putting the Kings on top with two first-period goals, including one on the power play.
“They’re a good home team and any time you can get on the board first, it’s beneficial,” said Kopitar, who leads the team in goals (20), assists (39) and points (59). “We’ve played some good hockey lately. There’s certainly room for improvement. Tonight, Cal was outstanding, obviously. We were able to beat them on special teams.”
The Kings were two for two with a power-play unit that came in ranked 24th in the league, but victimized a Vegas team that entered with the fourth-worst penalty kill on home ice.