Byfield scores twice, Kings defeat Flames

LOS ANGELES -- Quinton Byfield scored twice to help the Los Angeles Kings to a 5-3 win against the Calgary Flames at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar had two assists for the Kings (19-7-4), who have won three of their past four. Cam Talbot made 29 saves.

“You kind of sit on that last game that you play, and obviously, it’s good to get the win and kind of not sulk over the break,” Los Angeles forward Alex Laferriere said.

Blake Coleman had a power-play and short-handed goal for the Flames (14-15-5), who had won three straight and were 3-0-2 during a five-game point streak. Jacob Markstrom made 29 saves.

“It was frustrating,” Coleman said. “We felt like we can play with these teams, and we can beat these teams, but that’s a few too many points [missed] on this stretch everybody’s talking about. I feel like we should have had two or three more wins on this stretch, and we left some points on the table.”

Byfield put the Kings up 1-0 at 1:01 of the first period on a one-timer from the blue line.

Rasmus Andersson tied it 1-1 at 2:47 with a shot from along the right boards.

Pierre-Luc Dubois put Los Angeles back ahead 2-1 at 15:20, tipping in Jordan Spence’s shot just after a power play expired. It was his first goal in 13 games since Nov. 18 against the St. Louis Blues.

“My job is just to play hockey, help this team win,” Dubois said. “Yeah, scoring goals, you can help your team out that way. You can help your team in other ways, winning face-offs and stuff like that.”

Coleman tied it 2-2 at 4:01 of the second period when he forced a turnover in the neutral zone before finishing off a short-handed 2-on-1 with Yegor Sharangovich.

Talbot went down but was able to stay in the game when Coleman ran into him after scoring the goal, knocking off the goalie’s mask.

Laferriere made it 3-2 at 6:28, redirecting a pass by Doughty off his skate from the bottom of the left circle. It was Laferriere's third goal in his past five games.

"Laf is a young guy in the League, he’s got a lot to learn, but he’s doing a really good job for it being his first season,” Dubois said.

Trevor Moore made it 4-2 at 9:57 on a shot off the rush from the right wing after taking a stretch pass from Matt Roy.

Coleman cut it to 4-3 at 7:18 of the third period when he converted a rebound from the low slot on a power play.

The Flames were 1-for-6 on the power play, including a four-minute double minor against Kings forward Adrian Kempe for high-sticking late in the second period.

“We had some opportunities, but they were those in tight kind of stuff around the net where goaltenders down low typically make those saves,” Calgary coach Ryan Huska said. “The one shot rebound is what you’re looking for a lot of times, the goal Blake scored for us.”

Byfield outraced Flames defenseman Noah Hanifin to score into an empty net with one minute remaining for the 5-3 final.

“Well, he did what he does now,” McLellan said. “He skates. We saw him win the race, but it was also off an icing.”

NOTES: The Kings’ 42 points is tied for the second-best start through 30 games in franchise history, trailing only 1980-81 (44). … Moore scored his 16th goal of the season in his 30th game. The last Kings skater with as many goals through 30 games played in a season was Jeff Carter (18 in 2012-13). … Coleman is the first Calgary player to have power-play and short-handed goal in a game since Hanifin did it at the Arizona Coyotes on Nov. 25, 2018. His four short-handed goals rank second in the NHL behind New York Islanders forward Simon Holmstrom (five). … Kopitar has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past six games.