LOS ANGELES –– In a successful stretch defined by squeakers, the Kings added a blowout of the NHL’s hottest team to run their string of seven victories in eight games, smoking the Carolina Hurricanes 7-2 on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena.
Captain Anže Kopitar, newcomer Andrei Kuzmenko, grinder Tanner Jeannot, aspiring star Quinton Byfield and creative force Kevin Fiala each contributed a goal and an assist, with Drew Doughty’s pair of helpers also putting him in the multipoint performance club. Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore also lit the lamp. David Rittich won his second straight decision, stopping 34 shots.
Dmitry Orlov and Mark Jankowski scored a goal apiece for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov struggled between the pipes, making 18 of 25 saves. The Hurricanes had an NHL-best winning streak of eight games before being knocked to the canvas by the Kings.
The triumph moved the Kings into a points tie with Edmonton for second place in the Pacific ahead of the Oilers’ meeting with the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night, one in which they’d be missing stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl due to injury.
Although the Kings didn’t have any possession advantages in the first period, they got the game’s first goal, earned its first power play to add a man-advantage marker and then tacked on a third tally to accumulate a 3-0 lead at the first intermission.
They’d cash in three more times in the middle frame, trampling Carolina almost effortlessly at points. In all, they found the nylon with six of their first 11 shots.
Kempe got the scoring going 3:03 after the puck dropped with a spectacular individual effort for his team-topping 29th goal. After Jeannot and Samuel Helenius won a board battle, the puck came to Kempe at the red line. He surged forward against two defenders, isolating Brent Burns in the right circle, where Kempe’s toe-drag move into a far-side snipe got the stone rolling for the hosts.
And roll on it did, as Kuzmenko recorded his first point and first power-play point as a King off a brilliant tic-tac-toe play with Doughty to set up Kopitar’s 17th tally at 14:39. Then, the trade-deadline acquisition scored his first goal as a King with five seconds left in the stanza via a snapshot that capped a counterattack.
The hectoring continued on the scoreboard despite the Hurricanes earning some 70% of the expected goals through 40 minutes, per Natural Stat Trick. The Kings, however, put three more tangible tallies behind Kochetkov in the second period, while allowing a goal as well.
Moore struck at the 5:58 mark, Jeannot made it 5-0 just 51 seconds later and Byfield slathered on a sixth goal at 8:41.
Phillip Danault pulled up to find Moore trailing the play, allowing the Thousand Oaks native to skate between the circles and tuck a shot under the bar to the stick side for his 15th goal of 2024-25.
Jeannot first had a Doughty shot attempt glance off his leg and bounce right to Alex Turcotte, who fed the puck back to Jeannot for a one-timer, his sixth goal as a King.
Kevin Fiala took the puck away in the neutral zone and set up Byfield’s initial shot, and then Fiala recovered the puck anew before decisively dishing to Byfield at the back post for an uncontested redirection, his 18th goal of the campaign.
Orlov slapped a one-timer from the blue line to claw one back with 5:43 left in the frame, breaking up Rittich’s shutout.
The third period had a running clock feel to it, until the two sides exchanged goals in just eight seconds. Fiala scored a goal, his 26th, trailing the rush with 1:57 to play before Jankowski responded immediately for Carolina.
Both were quickly looking ahead to another game Sunday. Carolina will be at Honda Center to take on the Ducks on Sunday evening, when the Kings will be rolling out the black and silver carpet for the Boston Bruins at Crypto.com Arena.