Drew Doughty and Kevin Fiala produced one goal and two assists apiece to pace the visiting Los Angeles Kings to a 5-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
Anze Kopitar and Trevor Moore both collected one goal and one assist, and Brandt Clarke also tallied as the Kings snapped a two-game skid. Goaltender Cam Talbot made 22 saves and Quinton Byfield collected two assists. Doughty’s first assist of the night was the 500th of his career.
Brock Boeser replied for the Pacific Division-leading Canucks, who are on a 1-5-1 slide. Goalie Thatcher Demko stopped 15 shots.
The Kings maintained their hold on the Western Conference’s first wild-card position with a dominating effort from start to finish, kicking off with a strong first period in which they held the Canucks to three shots on goal.
Doughty opened the scoring 13:19 into the clash with his 14th goal of the season. Shortly after he hit the ice during a line change, Doughty reached the offensive zone in time to receive a pass from Fiala and unload a rocket of a shot from just inside the blue line.
Kopitar doubled the lead at 5:14 of the second period. Taking advantage of a turnover at the Vancouver blue line, Doughty sent the puck deep to Byfield, who quickly fed a pass to Kopitar at the left faceoff dot to convert for his 18th goal of the campaign.
Boeser provided a lift for the Canucks 2:55 into the third period when he netted his 35th goal of the season on a power play. He delivered a perfect wrist shot from the left circle. It was his third consecutive game with a power-play marker.
However, Vancouver’s comeback hopes were dashed 92 seconds later. Fiala netted a power-play goal by tapping home a long seeing-ice shot-pass from Kopitar for his 18th of the season.
Clarke extended the lead to 4-1 by finishing a give-and-go during a two-on-one rush for his second of the campaign at 12:31 of the final frame.
Moore rounded out the scoring at 15:38 when he converted a breakaway set up by Fiala for his 23rd goal of the season.
–Field Level Media
