Lizotte scores twice, Kings defeat Blackhawks to gain in Pacific

CHICAGO-- Blake Lizotte scored two goals for the Los Angeles Kings in a 5-2 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Tuesday.

Phillip Danault had a goal and an assist, and Viktor Arvidsson and Dustin Brown each had two assists for the Kings (39-26-10), who ended a three-game losing streak. Jonathan Quick made 18 saves.
"I think you look at this game and that's a must-win game for us," Lizotte said. "I think everyone kind of knows where we're at in the locker room. The attitude was definitely urgent. We needed this one."

Los Angeles is third in the Pacific Division, two points behind the second-place Edmonton Oilers.
The Kings lost 6-3 at the Minnesota Wild on Sunday after blowing a 3-0 lead.
"You saw some of it in Minnesota, the first 10-12 minutes of the game," Lizotte said. "We just veered off from that. Tonight we had a similar start and emphasized us playing the way we play for a 60 [minutes] instead of just bits and pieces of the game, and I felt like we did that tonight."
Collin Delia made 31 saves for the Blackhawks (24-38-11), who have lost eight in a row (0-6-2). Taylor Raddysh had a goal and an assist, and Philipp Kurashev had two assists.
"It's physical, but I think mentally we're gassed," Chicago coach Derek King said. "Then you add on a losing streak, we can't get out of it and the teams we're playing that are coming in here. It's not going to get any easier because these guys are looking for points, too. There are some desperate teams out there that want to get into the playoffs.
"It's going to take a lot of hard work, pretty solid effort and almost a perfect game for us. We have some young guys in the lineup, which is great. It's given them an opportunity to see where they're at, but you can see the mistakes at times."

Trevor Moore put the Kings ahead 1-0 at 7:43 of the first period. Arvidsson passed the puck from the left corner to Danault in the slot. Danault faked a shot then slid the puck to Moore, who tapped it in from the right of the net.
Danault made it 2-0 at 10:50 when his shot from the left face-off circle went in off the right skate of Blackhawks defenseman Caleb Jones.
Raddysh brought Chicago to within 2-1 at 16:27 of the second period. Kurashev took the puck at the goal line to the right of the net and passed to Raddysh, who shot it in from the slot.
"Everything is all about the team," Raddysh said. "I've had bad games. I've had good games. We're all in it together and right now it's kind of frustrating the way the games have been going. But I feel like we have to keep going day by day and keep getting better and better together."
Lizotte gave the Kings a 3-1 lead at 17:00, scoring on a backhand from in front of the net off passes from Alex Iafallo and Brown, who returned to the lineup after missing 14 games with an upper-body injury.
"First of all, he had a tremendous game," Kings coach Todd McLellan said of Brown. "To come in and be injured as long as he was, practiced as little as we've practiced, I think that's a story we've told a million times. But to come in and give us the type of game he had was huge."

Jordan Spence put Los Angeles ahead 4-1 at 5:08 of the third period when his shot from the high slot deflected into the net off Chicago defenseman Seth Jones.
Patrick Kane scored for the Blackhawks at 16:42 to make it 4-2. Lizotte scored an empty-net goal for the 5-2 final.
"In my mind, there's no such thing as a perfect game, but we eliminated a lot of the errors we were making in games prior," McLellan said. "We limited shots. I thought we gave them some momentum on the power play in the third. Whether they were good calls or not, they were made. Good to get back in the win column. It gives us a little bit of confidence and get us ready for tomorrow. We know what we're up against there."
NOTES: Brown led the Kings with five shots on goal in 12:37 of ice time … The Blackhawks recalled defenseman Alec Regula from Rockford of the American Hockey League. He played 17:22, had two shots on goal and four penalty minutes, and was a minus-1.