Doughty helps Kings conquer Canucks
VANCOUVER — Drew Doughty and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and two assists as the Los Angeles Kings snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 win 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. Doughty now has 501 career assists. Brock Boeser scored on the power play for the Canucks.
The Kings (30-19-10) were playing their third game in four nights after dropping 4-2 decisions to Edmonton and Calgary.
The Canucks are 1-5-1 in their last seven games but continue to lead the Western Conference with a 38-17-7 record.
Kings’ goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 22 shots while Thatcher Demko made 15 saves for Vancouver.
The Canucks opened the third period with their first goal of the night on a power play 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 blueline that Fiala slapped into the empty corner of the net from behind the goal line.
Clarke, dressed as a seventh defenceman for the Kings, scored on a pretty deke to make it 4-1 at 12:31. 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.
Vancouver managed to apply some pressure later in the period.
Conor Garland’s shot off a rebound of a Tyler Myers wrap-around attempt rang off the post behind Talbot. A few minutes later Talbot gobbled up a Boeser blast from the slot, then held his ground when Elias Pettersson tried to jam in the puck at the side of the net.
The first was just 16 seconds old when Vancouver’s Arshdeep Bains was called for tripping. The Kings failed to score on that power play but Doughty gave L.A. a 1-0 lead with a slapshot through traffic that beat Demko on the stick side at 13:19.
Maple Leafs 4, Coyotes 2
TORONTO — Auston Matthews scored his NHL-leading 53rd goal of the season as the Toronto Maple Leafs topped Arizona 4-2 on Thursday to hand the Coyotes their 14th straight loss.
Matthew Knies, with a goal and an assist, and Tyler Bertuzzi also scored for Toronto (34-17-8). Joseph Woll made 30 saves in his return from a long injury absence.
William Nylander added an empty netter to go along with two assists.
Alex Kerfoot and Logan Cooley replied for Arizona (23-31-5), which dropped to 0-12-2 since its last victory on Jan. 22.