VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Drew Doughty and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and two assists and the Kings snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.
Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore both had a goal and an assist for the Kings. Rookie Brandt Clarke scored his second career goal while Quinton Byfield also had two assists.
“We played great right from the puck drop,” said Doughty, who has 501 career assists. “I was so proud and so happy with our team’s performance tonight. Every single player played well. There wasn’t one dog out there and that’s why we won.”
Brock Boeser scored on the power play for the Canucks. They have lost two in a row and six of their last seven (1-5-1) but continue to lead the Western Conference.
“I don’t think we gave them much,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “It’s just the fact what we gave them was egregious.”
Kings goaltender Cam Talbot stopped 22 shots, while Thatcher Demko made 15 saves for Vancouver.
“That was definitely the best 60 (minutes) of the year for us from start to finish,” Talbot said. “I can’t think of one fault in our game. That’s what it takes to win in this league every night.”
The Kings controlled the flow of the game. They took time and space away from the Canucks and played physical.
The Canucks opened the third period when Boeser rifled home a pass from J.T. Miller for his 35th of the season at 2:55, making the score 2-1. It was Vancouver’s third power-play goal in 38 attempts over 12 games.
The Kings restored their two-goal lead just 1:32 later on their own power play. Kopitar took a long shot from just inside the blue line that Fiala slapped into the empty corner of the net from behind the goal line.
Clarke made it 4-1 at 12:31 and Moore made it 5-1 on a breakaway with a shot that trickled in off Demko’s pad at 15:38.
The Kings went ahead 2-0 early in the second on a heads-up play by Byfield. He took a pass…
Read the full article here
