Edmundson scores twice, Kings hold off Utah Hockey Club

LOS ANGELES -- Joel Edmundson scored his first two goals for the Los Angeles Kings in a 3-2 win against the Utah Hockey Club at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

“We brought him in for a lot of reasons, and if he wants to do that (and score), we’ll take that as well,” Kings head coach Jim Hiller said of Edmundson, who signed a four-year, $15.4 million contract ($3.85 million average annual value) on July 1.

Brandt Clarke had a goal and an assist, Adrian Kempe had two assists, and Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves in his return for the Kings (5-2-2) after missing four games with a lower-body injury sustained against the Ottawa Senators on Oct. 14.

Clayton Keller and Logan Cooley scored for Utah (4-4-1), which has lost three straight games. Connor Ingram allowed three goals on 23 shots.

“Not ideal, going three in a row here, but can’t hit the panic button,” said Utah center Nick Bjugstad, who made his season debut after missing eight games with an upper-body injury. “We got the tools, we got the guys in there, and it’s just going to come down to kind of having that killer instinct, as I kind of talked about before. I think we’ll, for sure, come out of this and be stronger for it.”

Clarke put the Kings ahead 1-0 at 7:51 of the second period with his first NHL power-play goal. His shot from the blue line deflected in off the stick of Utah defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.

“We’re just emphasizing, you know, if we get it, let’s go to the net, let’s create some danger,” Clarke said of mindset for the Kings defensemen, who have combined to score seven goals.

Edmundson made it 2-0 at 13:10 with a one-timer from below the left circle as he slid on one knee.

Keller cut it to 2-1 at 15:55 on the power play with a one-timer from the right circle set up by Sergachev.

“I thought we had some good spurts,” Bjugstad said. “It’s a one-goal game, we got to find ways to win that, especially the last couple games we had. The good teams find ways to win in certain situations like that.”

Edmundson pushed the lead back to 3-1 just 1:09 into the third period with a one-timer from the left point through traffic. It was his first multigoal game in 537 NHL appearances.

Edmundson couldn’t remember the last time he scored two or more goals in a game.

“Probably like Pee-Wee?” he said. “I have no idea. It’s been a while.”

Cooley cut it to 3-2 at 9:47, tapping in a centering pass from Michael Kesselring at the top of the crease.

“I mean, we were there, but being there isn’t enough a lot of nights here in the NHL, so we’ll figure it out,” Bjugstad said. “It wasn’t great, it wasn’t bad, but we got better.”

Kings forward Kevin Fiala was benched for the final 24:05 after taking his second penalty of the game, which led to Keller’s fifth goal of the season.

Hiller would not comment specifically on Fiala’s playing time but said the team has been taking too many penalties. The Kings have conceded 39 power plays, including three to Utah.

“You can’t take that many penalties, and when you show up more than once or twice or three times, you know, the coach has to do something,” Hiller said.

NOTES: Kings captain Anze Kopitar had the primary assist on Edmundson’s second goal. It was Kopitar’s 1,220 point (422 goals, 798 assists) in 1,381 games, breaking a tie with Jean Beliveau for 45th in NHL history.