Kings royal for a day in blowout of Golden Knights
Lack of scoring and being ineffective on special teams are a huge reason why Los Angeles is at the bottom of the Western Conference standings. But the Kings broke out of their offensive malaise on Saturday, tying a season high in goals as they defeated the Vegas Golden Knights 5-1.
“It’s probably one of our more dominant wins and we actually played a good team here in Vegas, very good team. It was a full 60 minutes,” said defenseman Drew Doughty, who had an assist. “When your team does that, you’re going to win more hockey games and hopefully we realized that tonight because we need to win more.”
The Kings scored their most goals since a 5-2 victory over Edmonton on Nov. 25. It was only the sixth time in 30 games that they have scored four or more goals. Los Angeles, which has two wins in its last five games, has a league-low 23 points and with 66 goals is last in the league in scoring.
Oscar Lindberg scored for Vegas less than five minutes into the game before Los Angeles got goals from Nikita Scherbak, Matt Luff, Jeff Carter, Derek Forbort and Nate Thompson. Jonathan Quick made 29 saves.
Forbort also had an assist for his second multipoint game of the season, and Jake Muzzin added two assists.
Kings coach Willie Desjardins was pleased with how the team started, but what made him happier was the performance of his specialty teams. They got their first power-play goal in five games and killed all three of Vegas’ opportunities. Los Angeles had allowed a powerplay goal in five of its last six games coming into Saturday.
The Kings came into the game with the third-worst power play in the league, while the Golden Knights were second in penalty killing.
“I thought our leaders did a great job today,” Desjardins said.
RANGERS 5, PANTHERS 4 >> Kevin Hayes had the gamedeciding goal in the third round of the shootout, giving New York a win over Florida.
SENATORS 2, PENGUINS 1 >> Ryan Dzingel scored on a power play at 1:20 of overtime to give the Ottawa a victory over Pittsburgh.
The Penguins were called for too many men on the ice, setting up the winning power play.
ISLANDERS 3, RED WINGS 2 >> Matt Martin scored a tiebreaking goal with 16:36 remaining in the third period, capping an impressive comeback for New York in a victory over the Detroit.
FLYERS 6, SABRES 2 >> Claude Giroux had a goal and three assists to lead Philadelphia past Buffalo. The Sabres have lost five in a row after winning 10 straight. LIGHTNING 7, AVALANCHE 1 >> Steven Stamkos had two goals and two assists as the NHL-leading Tampa Bay won its sixth consecutive game, beating Colorado. CAPITALS 4, BLUE JACKETS 0 >> Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 22nd goal and Braden Holtby got his 34th career shutout as Washington beat Columbus. BRUINS 6, MAPLE LEAFS 3 >> David Krejci had a goal and assist to move past Hall of Famer Cam Neely for 10th on Boston’s all-time scoring list, and the Bruins snapped a three-game losing streak with a win over Toronto.