LOS ANGELES –– The Kings bounced back after a loss once again, dispatching the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-2, at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening.
They had snapped a four-game points streak with a loss to Vancouver on Thursday, but have not dropped consecutive decisions since the Oct. 16 conclusion of a three-game winless streak.
“That’s character and will to win, and veteran leadership,” said Coach Jim Hiller, remarking that the Kings’ dense and travel-laden schedule hasn’t afforded much practice time. “Those guys have to get out there and organize the team without practicing much. If you don’t have veteran guys or leadership like we have, it makes it pretty tough.”
Alex Laferriere, Trevor Moore, Warren Foegele and former Blue Jacket Vladislav Gavrikov each scored a goal for the Kings before Brandt Clarke tacked on an empty-netter. Foegele also picked up an assist, as did Samuel Helenius in his NHL debut, which was brought about by Tanner Jeannot’s three-game suspension. Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe added two assists apiece. David Rittich stopped 24 shots.
Dmitri Voronkov and Ivan Provorov both tallied for Columbus, with Justin Danforth earning the primary assist on both goals. Elvis Merzļikins came up with 18 of 22 saves to leave the Blue Jackets without a win in four straight outings.
With 30.3 seconds showing on the game clock, Clarke’s empty-net, power-play goal heaped more dirt on the visitors.
The Kings solidified their position with 12:55 left in the contest. Helenius nearly created a rebound goal for Foegele, who calmly pulled the puck out to reinitiate offensively. He slid it to Joel Edmundson, who sent a shot toward the slot where a reversed-stick redirection by Laferriere became his team-leading ninth goal.
With a Columbus power play carrying over from the second period, the final frame started with not one but two bangs as the two sides exchanged special-teams goals, 19 seconds apart.
Provorov brought the Blue Jackets back within a goal when he crept down low to slip home a rebound generated by a Danforth shot.
The Kings had earned the game’s first multi-goal lead, though it proved fleeting, when Moore scored shorthanded just 30 seconds into the stanza. Cole Sillinger fanned on the puck at the offensive blue line and Phillip Danault pounced, pushing it ahead for Moore, who dashed to daylight and scored off a rising wrister to the far side. Moore and Danault each have a five-game scoring streak cooking.
After a tepid start fettered by sound neutral-zone defense from Columbus and some Kings turnovers, including one that proved costly, the Kings changed the narrative and took the lead in the second period.
“They did a good job clogging the neutral zone. We struggled to get through it and get pucks behind them,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said. “The second was a little more direct, we played more below their goal line and got a few o-zone shifts.”
Less than two minutes passed between the Kings goals at 4:16 and 6:12.
Foegele gave the hosts their first lead of the night when a savvy chip by Helenius in the neutral zone sent Akil Thomas ahead with speed. He slid the puck over for Foegele, who finished a partial two-on-one break by whipping a wrist shot past Merzļikins. Rittich would preserve the 2-1 soon after with a breakaway save on Sillinger.
The Kings had tied the game off Gavrikov’s second goal of the season, which was also his second in two appearances. Kempe skated down a puck and burst down the same right-wing wall along which he turned the puck back for Gavrikov. He glided to the top of the right faceoff circle and flicked a shot that changed direction off Columbus center Sean Monahan before entering the net. Gavrikov played 256 games for Columbus across parts of four seasons.
Hiller praised Gavrikov’s more consistent intensity, active stick and execution of high-level defensive details as elevated contributions in the absence of injured top rearguard Drew Doughty. Doughty not only shouldered considerable weight in terms of eating minutes and safeguarding the defensive zone but in terms of offense as well. Yet the Kings, to the surprise of even Hiller, have scored the second most points from the blue line in the NHL this season, trailing only Colorado.
Anderson offered an in-jest explanation for the offensive outburst sans Doughty, then a deferential one.
“Getting rid of him,” Anderson joked about his longtime defensive partner.
“I think our forwards help us, they get to the net hard,” he continued. “They’ve done a good job creating traffic. We’re just trying to shoot, get something down there and create something for them to get grinding.”
Late in the first period, Rittich had to extinguish a couple of fires set by turnovers, but couldn’t contain an earlier one. At the 13:26 mark, Kevin Fiala’s blasé backhand pass into the middle of the ice served the puck on a platter for Danforth, who found Voronkov driving diligently toward the goal crease for his first goal of the year.
Moore, Fiala’s linemate, said “Kevin is the hardest on himself.”
“He knows that he maybe shouldn’t make that pass, but also youve got to let Kevin try to make plays, because it’s what makes him elite, Moore added. If you want to just chip the puck off the wall all night, you’re not getting your best version of 22, so, we accept that.”