Well, that was fun.
The Kings earned another two points in Monday night's game against the Calgary Flames, dominating from start to finish. The 8-2 victory tied a season-high in goals (8-9 OTL vs. SEA on Nov. 29) and brought the Kings into a tie for the division lead alongside the Vegas Golden Knights.
For the third time in four games, the exploded for a four-goal period in route to a win. This time coming in the first period, the Kings quickly jumped on the Calgary Flames and took a stranglehold on the game. Carl Grundstrom opened the night's scoring with his first of two goals, smoothly deking out Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom after a pass from Zack MacEwen and Rasmus Kupari. Drew Doughty struck next with a strategically placed seeing-eye shot against the grain as the defenseman netted his sixth goal of the season and his third in the past four games. Putting the Kings up 3-0 less than a minute later was Gabriel Vilardi, who took a pass from Alex Iafallo in the slot and made no mistake, netting his career-high 23rd goal of the season. Finishing off the four-goal period was Viktor Arvidsson who took advantage of the opportunity of being on the top power play unit. In place of the injured Kevin Fiala, Arvidsson buried a one-timer for his 20th goal of the season. Now in the 20-goal club, Arvidsson becomes the fifth King to do so on the season, joining Adrian Kempe (34), Anze Kopitar (26), Gabriel Vilardi (23) and Kevin Fiala (22).
Carrying the substantial lead into the second period, the Kings didn't get complacent and grew the lead after another 20 minutes. After giving up a Tyler Toffoli power-play goal early in the period, Adrian Kempe joined the scoresheet and buried back-to-back goals by first taking an Alex Edler outlet pass in for a breakaway for his 33rd of the season, and then sniping a beauty of a goal short-side high-glove for his 34th of the season. Kempe now sits one goal shy of his career-high 35 goals set just last season.
Up 6-1 entering the final 20, the Kings again outscored the Flames 2-1 in the second straight period. Mikey Anderson joined the party with his career-high fifth goal of the season, netting his first career power play goal. Closing out the game's scoring was the man who started, Carl Grundstrom. On a night filled with accomplishments, Grundstrom became the 10th member of the Kings to reach the double-digit mark in goals this season.
Phoenix Copley wasn't that busy, but he did play in the game. Spotting 16 of 18 shots, Copley improved his record to 22-4-3 on the season.
Going back two games, the Kings have now outshot their opponents 79-35.
3/20 FINAL - Kings 8, Flames 2
The Kings extend their point streak to 10 games in convincing fashion.
Grundstrom, Kempe power Kings' 8-2 rout of Flames
