The Kings bounced back in dominant fashion on Friday night after dropping their opening game of the road trip two days prior. Defeating the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0, the Kings strong four-goal first period proved to be far too much for a league-worst Blackhawks team to overcome.
The Kings offense got going early as they struck 3:10 into the game on the power play. After a Jordan Spence one-timer from the point glanced off of the outside of the net, a quick heads up wrist shot from Pierre-Luc Dubois beat goaltender Arvid Soderblom to the short-side post for his 15th goal of the season in his 500th career game. The Kings then doubled their lead 2:23 later as Alex Laferriere deflected in a point shot from Matt Roy, becoming the 11th rookie in the NHL to reach double digit goals this season.
Up 2-0, the Kings strong first period continued as the top line extended the lead with a pair more of goals. Twice, Quinton Byfield showed off his elite vision and found Anze Kopitar for backdoor goals, leading to a goalie change from the Blackhawks just 14:19 into the game. With his pair of goals, Kopitar has reached the 20-goal mark for the 13th time in his career, breaking a tie with Luc Robitaille (12), Dave Taylor (12) and Marcel Dionne (12) for the most such seasons in franchise history. It was the Kings first four-goal period since January 15th.
With 40 more minutes remaining, the Kings weren’t done. Adding another goal in the second period, it was Jordan Spence getting in on the offense with his first goal of the season. Spence beat Petr Mrazek with a short-side sharply angled shot and banked the puck off of the goalie as he tried to cover the post. Spence doubled his career goal total in his 84th career NHL game.
A scoreless third period followed and Cam Talbot closed out the game with a 28-save shutout, his third of the season.
