The Kings bounced back on Thursday night in Chicago with a 3-1 win over the Blackhawks. With the win, it wasn’t just about earning two more points, but the Kings also picked up their first victory over the Blackhawks and closed out the season series with a 1-1-1 record against the 31st ranked team in the NHL.
The Kings began the game in dominant fashion, controlling the whole first period. Outshooting the Blackhawks 19-7 in the opening 20 minutes, the Kings cashed in twice in the span of 59 seconds midway into the period. First coming off of the stick of Trevor Moore, the Thousand Oaks native beat Spencer Knight on the blocker side with rocket of a wrist shot after linemate Phillip Danault cleared the high slot out with a center lane drive on a line rush. Moore’s goal gives him 14 on the season. Less than a minute later it was the Illinois native tipping in his eighth goal of the season. Coming on a sequence that saw three shots from the point between Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence in a span of 10 seconds, Alex Turcotte deflected a Gavrikov shot in impressive fashion, reaching behind his body and lifting the puck up off the ice and over the glove of Knight.
The script was flipped for the majority of the second period as play favored the Blackhawks. During that time the Blackhawks cut the deficit to one goal. Coming on the power play, after breaking the Kings press coverage Tyler Bertuzzi found an open Connor Bedard on the weak side. Bedard ripped a one-timer past Darcy Kuemper with 9:10 to go in the period for his 19th goal of the season and brought the Blackhawks within a shot of tying the game.
Enter period three and the Kings were able to silence the Blackhawks for the final 20 minutes. Even with taking a minor penalty in the early stages of the third, the Kings held the Blackhawks to just six shots in the period. Icing the game late was Joel Edmundson, who extended the lead to 3-1 with an empty net goal from 185 feet.
Kuemper continued his stellar play as of late stopping 17 of 18 shots. Kuemper has now allowed just seven goals in his last seven games. Holding the Blackhawks to just one goal, the Kings have now kept their opponents to one goal or less an NHL-most 25 times this season.
