LOS ANGELES –– The third lead was a charm for the Kings, who built edges of 1-0 and 2-1 before ultimately winning 4-2 over the St. Louis Blues at Crypto.com Arena Saturday night.
Wingers Carl Grundstrom, Adrian Kempe, Gabe Vilardi and Kevin Fiala lit the lamp for the Kings. Fiala added an assist and defenseman Drew Doughty had two on a night where he played game No. 1,077 to tie him for the fourth most in franchise history. Joonas Korpisalo made 24 saves and earned a win in his Kings debut after being acquired from Columbus earlier this week.
Wingers Robert Thomas and Kasperi Kapanen scored goals for St. Louis. Jordan Binnington stopped 34 of 37 shots in defeat.
The Kings remained in a points tie for first place in the Pacific Division with Vegas and trailed Dallas by just one point for the best record in the Western Conference.
“There’s no such thing as perfect,” Coach Todd McLellan said. “But I think that our goaltending is solid, our D know what they need to do and our forwards, for the most part, get the job done. For as much as you’d like to win five-nothing every night, playing in these games, once they’re over and we do win them, is probably good for us.”
Korpisalo became the fourth goaltender to start for the Kings this season, despite the fact that they have not had any injuries in net or emergency recalls. The carousel may settle on Korpisalo if he continues to provide a steady hand.
“These are the games you enjoy the most. There’s more pressure, but you play for these games, so it’s exciting,” said Korpisalo, who said he shook off some early jitters and then settled in nicely by his own standards.
As was the case against Montreal Thursday, the Kings were undaunted by a late six-on-five effort from St. Louis, icing the victory with Fiala’s empty-net goal with 1:56 to play.
“These are the kind of games we’re going to see. It’s getting closer to the end of the year, tight checking, not a lot of space, kind of slugging…
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