Anze Kopitar scored twice, Pierre-Luc Dubois, Alex Laferriere and Jordan Spence each had a goal and an assist and Cam Talbot recorded a shutout as the visiting Los Angeles Kings routed the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 on Friday.
Los Angeles raced to four first-period goals to chase Blackhawks goaltender Arvid Soderblom en route to strengthening their hold on third place in the Pacific Division.
A suddenly potent Blackhawks attack fizzled against the Kings. Chicago entered Friday coming off consecutive wins for just the second time this season after tallying seven goals in successive games for the first time since November 1992.
Talbot turned aside all 28 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season and first since Dec. 7. It was the 31st shutout of his career.
Dubois opened the scoring with a power-play goal 3:10 into the game, gathering the rebound of a long Spence shot off the end boards and beating Soderblom with a quick wrist shot.
Laferriere made it 2-0 Los Angeles just 2:23 later, redirecting a Matt Roy shot from the high slot into the net.
Defensive breakdowns from the Blackhawks later in the period paved the way for Kopitar to secure the 46th multi-goal game of his career and 13th 20-goal season.
With Soderblom drawn from his crease to cut down the angle of an open shooter on a rush, Quinton Byfield slid a pass to Kopitar, who buried a chance into an open net from the right circle.
Kopitar scored his second goal of the night at 14:19 of the first after getting behind the defense to convert an opportunity on the backdoor. That marked the end of the night for Soderblom.
Chicago’s Andreas Athanasiou hit the post on a Chicago power play later in the period, and Alex Vlasic hit another just after the man advantage ended.
The Blackhawks finished 0-for-4 on the power play.
Ryan Donato and Jarred Tinordi had four shots apiece for the Blackhawks.
Spence capped the scoring at 2:31 of the second period, deflecting a tough-angle shot from near the goal line off Petr Mrazek, who stopped 22 of 23 shots in relief of Soderblom.
Adrian Kempe and Byfield both had two assists.
–Field Level Media
