The Kings extended their winning streak to four games on Monday night when they defeated the top team in the Western Conference, the Vancouver Canucks 3-2. The fast-paced, physical and tightly contested game had the feel of a playoff game as every inch of ice was hard to come by. With the Kings coming out victorious, they move within one point of the Edmonton Oilers and maintain that third seed in the division over the Vegas Golden Knights who also won on Monday night in St. Louis.
The Kings grabbed the lead first for the fourth consecutive game when Kevin Fiala notched his 24th goal of the season 7:01 into the opening period. Fiala and the Kings took advantage of a Canucks miscue when the home team botched a line change and only had four skaters on the ice. The play began with a strong zone entry from Pierre-Luc Dubois, who found a streaking Fiala on the weak side of the ice and hit the Swiss winger with a tape-to-tape pass. Fiala one-timed the pass and quieted the crowd early. The Canucks would respond later in the period when Sam Lafferty made a beautiful individual play to deke his way around multiple Kings and beat Cam Talbot for his career-high 12th tuck of the season.
Knotted at 1-1 entering the second period, it took 16:29 of play in the middle stanza to find another goal. After Trevor Lewis drew a tripping penalty on Carson Soucy, the Kings set up for a 6-on-5 man advantage attack. There, a Blake Lizotte centering attempt deflected off Ian Cole once and Soucy three times and bounced into the Canucks net to give the Kings a 2-1 lead. Not even two minutes later, Anze Kopitar followed up his own shot, circled the net Canucks net while a scrum for a loose puck ensued and knocked in his 24th goal of the season after a Quinn Hughes skate deflected the puck onto his stick backdoor. Having already recorded an assist on the Lizotte tally, Kopitar’s goal marked the 299th time in his career that he’d put together a multi-point game.
Holding onto a two-goal lead late in the third period for the second consecutive game, the Kings again allowed a goal late to bring the game to 3-2. Brock Boeser continued his success against the Kings with his 16th goal and 22nd point in his 19th career game versus the Kings when he laced a shot-pass through the slot and benefited from a Kopitar skate deflecting the puck into the net. A late Drew Doughty tripping penalty with 20 seconds left in regulation gave the Canucks a last chance opportunity to even the score, but nothing would come of it and the Kings came out of Vancouver victorious.
Talbot stopped 21 of 23 shots and earned his fourth consecutive victory.
The Kings next opponent is the Edmonton Oilers. That extremely important game will take place on Thursday at 6:00 PM on Bally Sports West.
