The Kings got back to their winning ways on Saturday night when they defeated the Calgary Flames 5-3 at Crypto.com Arena. With the win, the Kings record goes to 19-7-4, good for third in the Pacific Division but tied for first in the division in winning percentage (.700%) as they head into the holiday break.
In their first head-to-head matchup this season, the action started early between the Kings and Flames. Kings fans missed some offense if they were late to getting into their seats on Saturday as Quinton Byfield put the Kings up 1-0 just 1:01 into the game. Coming off of an offensive zone set face-off play, Byfield one-timed a pass from Drew Doughty after an Anze Kopitar face-off win. Byfield’s shot found a way through Jakob Markstrom and squeaked across the goal line for the youngsters ninth goal. Less than two minutes later, the Flames responded with a goal that deflected off of Matt Roy’s shin pad. Knotted at 1-1 late in the first period, the Kings retook the lead just as a power play expired when Pierre-Lucas Dubois tipped in a point shot from Jordan Spence. The goal for Dubois was his sixth of the season and extended his point streak against the Flames to four games (2-2=4).
Into the second period, the Flames again evened the score. This time coming shorthanded, the Flames capitalized on a Kings neutral zone turnover and converted on a 2-on-1. The Kings put the turnover behind them and responded with two goals in the remainder of the period to take a 4-2 lead into the final 20 minutes of regulation. Putting the Kings up for the third time in the game was rookie Alex Laferriere just 2:27 after the Flames shorty. Again coming off of another offensive zone face-off win, Drew Doughty found Laferriere with a cross-ice pass. Laferriere benefitted from a fortuitous bounce as the puck ricocheted off of his skate blade and into the net for his fifth goal of the season. The Kings leading goalscorer then doubled the Kings lead midway into the game as Trevor Moore smoothly flicked a wrist shot under the crossbar and passed Markstrom’s blocker-side. Just 30 games into the season, Moore now sits one goal shy of his career high 17-goal season set in 2021-22. In the last 20 years, only two other Kings skaters have scored at least 16 goals the first 30 games to start a season, joining Jeff Carter (18G in 2012-13), and Alex Frolov (17G in 2006-07).
A Flames power-play goal brought the opponents back into the game as Blake Coleman found the back of the net for the 12th time this season and second time on the night. Fast forward to desperation time for the Flames and Byfield netted his second goal of the game into an emitting.
