Kempe stays hot, Kings ease past Sabres

LOS ANGELES --Adrian Kempe scored his seventh goal in the past three games for the Los Angeles Kings in a 5-2 win against the Buffalo Sabres at Crypto.com Arena on Monday.

"Obviously, he's on fire. I touched his stick a little bit to get some good luck," said Los Angeles forward Phillip Danault, who had three assists.
Viktor Arvidsson had a goal and two assists, and Pheonix Copley made 27 saves for the Kings (30-18-7), who are 5-1-1 in their past seven games.
"We kind of came from nowhere there in the second, but somehow we figured it out and just kept going," Arvidsson said.
Craig Anderson allowed five goals on 28 shots for the Sabres (26-22-4), who are 0-3-1 in their past four and have been outscored 12-4 in two games since the All-Star break.
"I think we kind of got frustrated a little bit, tried to do too much, and they capitalized on those opportunities," Buffalo forward Dylan Cozens said.

Kempe, who scored the final four goals in a 6-0 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, scored short-handed to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead at 9:20 of the second period.
Kempe is the third player in Kings history to score five straight goals, joining Tomas Sandstrom (Nov. 22-24, 1990) and Luc Robitaille (Feb. 4-6, 1992).
"Goal-scorer gets hot, and just hot stick, and it goes in," Arvidsson said. "I've been in those situations before, and it's nice to be in that kind of groove."

Arthur Kaliyev scored seven seconds into a power play to make it 2-0 at 12:35. He buried a slap shot from the right circle after Danault whiffed on a one-timer.
Sean Walker extended the lead to 3-0 at 18:41 on a wrist shot from the right point through a screen.
Matt Roy scored 33 seconds later with a one-timer from the left hash marks off a give-and-go with Kempe to make it 4-0.
"Overall, it was 10, 15 minutes of collapse by us that cost us the game," Cozens said.
Arvidsson pushed the lead to 5-0 at 5:14 of the third period. Danault tried to rim the puck around the boards, but the puck caromed off a stanchion and ended up at Anderson's left skate, where Arvidsson jammed it in on his backhand.
"Totally on purpose," Danault joked.
Said Arvidsson: "Good bounce for us. Our line has worked hard for those kind of bounces, and it's nice to get on the board."

Cozens ended Copley's bid for a second consecutive shutout at 10:16 when his shot on a rush trickled under the goalie's left skate to make it 5-1.
Peyton Krebs scored on a power play at 15:09 for the 5-2 final.
"You got to work your way through it," Sabres coach Don Granato said of the team's losing streak. "We have to compete and work, and you saw some time in the third period where that's how we need to play."
NOTES: Sandstrom holds the Kings record for most goals in a three-game span with eight. ... Copley has an NHL career-high 17 wins this season (17-3-1). … Los Angeles was 2-for-3 on the power play. Buffalo was 1-for-5. … Kaliyev's goal was his point in two games since returning from a lower-body injury that caused him to miss 18 games.