LOS ANGELES — Drew Doughty wasn’t done basking in the glow of his gold medal with Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and he rolled that momentum into the Kings’ 5-3 victory over Utah HC at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday evening.
In their first game after an extended break for the tournament, Doughty scored a goal and assisted on tallies by Kevin Fiala and Alex Laferriere. Doughty’s close friend Trevor Lewis tacked on an insurance marker that became the game-winner before Mikey Anderson snagged an empty-netter. Fiala had the primary assist on Doughty’s goal, while both Joel Edmundson and Phillip Danault contributed two helpers. Darcy Kuemper repelled 25 pucks.
Barrett Hayton netted a pair of power-play goals, both set up by Nick Schmaltz, en route to his first career hat trick. Connor Ingram made 21 of 25 saves.
The Kings cemented their two points with 90 ticks on the game clock when Anderson chucked the puck from the defensive zone and into an empty net, his sixth goal of the year to set a new career high. Anderson (upper-body) had not played since Jan. 30.
With nine minutes to play, Utah enlivened the final push as Hayton completed his tripleta, scoring all three goals from close range. This time he swept in Michael Carcone’s rebound to cap a sequence keyed by former King Sean Durzi’s interception at the blue line. Durzi was playing for the first time since undergoing shoulder surgery in mid-October.
With 10:19 remaining in the match, the Kings created separation. Strong forechecking led to a high shot for Jordan Spence and some loose change that Lewis swiped home off his backhand for his fourth goal of the campaign.
Across 40 minutes, the Kings trailed, drew even, fell behind again, equalized anew and then took their first lead of the game into the second intermission.
With 3:50 showing on the second-period clock, Doughty lofted a pass from his own end line all the way across the offensive blue line. Laferriere skated into the puck, settled it and sold a transition to his forehand before abruptly flicking a backhand shot past Ingram for his 15th goal of 2024-25.
Fiala had erased Utah’s second lead of the contest with his power-play goal 7:59 into the stanza. After a pair of chances from in tight, the Kings regrouped, with Doughty sending the puck to Anže Kopitar, who continued reversing it into the right circle for Fiala’s one-timer, goal 22 for No. 22 this season. Fiala later pinged the crossbar and nearly scored off the rush in the first period, carrying over his hot hand before the league’s pause.
Utah had cashed in with the extra man on both of its opportunities, including its only goal of the middle frame. Schmaltz whiffed partially on a golden opportunity from between the hash marks, only to have his changeup glance off Kuemper’s pads and directly to Hayton for his second man-advantage marker of the game.
In the first period, it was Doughty drawing the Kings even at the 8:22 mark, scoring his first goal of the year in resounding fashion with a thunderous slapshot. His far-side blast from above the left circle came off Fiala’s feed.
Hayton had opened the scoring just 28 seconds earlier when he redirected Schmaltz’s heave into the low slot through Kuemper.