Petersen and the Kings stay hot
He records his second straight win and helps surging L.A. to fourth victory in five games.
Cal Petersen made 22 saves and Phillip Danault and Blake Lizotte scored in the Kings’ 3-1 win over the New York Rangers on Monday night.
Trevor Moore had two assists and Adrian Kempe added an empty-net score for his career-high-tying 16th goal for the Kings, who have won four of five.
Petersen has stopped 43 of 44 shots in his last two starts after going more than a month between appearances.
The Kings came out buzzing in the second period, scoring twice in the opening 3:41. Danault got his seventh goal on a backhand chip following up Moore’s shot 55 seconds in, and Lizotte put in the rebound of Viktor Arvidsson’s sharpangle shot for the 2-0 lead.
Mika Zibanejad got to the edge of the crease for a redirect of a pass from Filip Chytil to pull the Rangers back within 2-1 with less than eight minutes remaining in the third. But Kempe’s goal with 1:17 remaining sealed it.
Moore continued his strong play in an elevated role since the holiday break, including picking up the secondary assist on Lizotte’s fourth goal.
Moore found himself on the second line because Danault, Alex Iafallo and Dustin Brown all had stints in COVID-19 protocol, and the 26-year-old Southern California native has made the most of his promotion with three goals and five assists in his past six games.
Kris Knoblauch served as temporary coach for New York after Gerard Gallant tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. Knoblauch, who coaches the Rangers’ minor league affiliate, took a redeye flight from Hartford, Conn., and arrived in Los Angeles at 2:30 a.m. Monday.
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Kings forward Martin Frk went on the non-roster/ COVID-19 list. ... Teammate Lias Andersson was put on injured reserve, retroactive to Jan. 9.