Back home after a three-game road trip last week, the Kings kicked off a three-game home stand on Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks. Having just defeated the Blackhawks 5-0 in Chicago four nights ago, the Kings kept that momentum going and followed it up with a 6-2 win. The win moves their home record to 7-2-1 after the All-Star Break and two points clear of a Vegas Goden Knights team that fell 5-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight.
The Kings struck first on Tuesday as Alex Laferriere scored his second goal in as many games against the Blackhawks this season. Laferriere knocked in a rebound after a Blake Lizotte shot made its way to the front of the net at the 12:03 mark of the first period. The Blackhawks would tie the game later in the period with a 5-on-3 goal from Nick Foligno with 5:33 remaining, sending the game tied into the first intermission.
It was all Kings in the second period, outscoring the Blackhawks 3-0 across the 20 minutes. Beginning with Vladislav Gavrikov, the defenseman gave the Kings their second lead of the game with a point shot for his fifth goal of the season at the 9:32 mark. Gavrikov’s goal also marked his 100th career point. The rest of the period was all Anze Kopitar as the veteran center scored two goals and moved past Patrick Marleau for 51st on the NHL’s all-time scoring list with his 1,197th and 1,198th career points. Both assisted by Adrian Kempe, Kopitar tallied one goal on the power play and one at even strength.
Into the third period, further distanced themselves from the Blackhawks with beautiful tic-tac-toe goal from Kevin Fiala, Trevor Moore and goalscorer Phillip Danault, who netted his 16th of the season. A Kevin Korchinski point shot beat Cam Talbot 5:44 remaining in the game to make it 5-2, but a Trevor Lewis deflection off of a Pierre-Luc Dubois shot pushed the lead back to four goals in the final minutes.
Cam Talbot picked up his second consecutive victory over the Blackhawks, making 22 saves on 24 shots. Talbot now holds a record of 21-16-6 on the season.
