Goaltender Pheonix Copley authored his third career shutout as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the visiting Montreal Canadiens for the fifth straight time, earning a 4-0 victory Saturday afternoon.
In his sixth outing of the season, on a fairly light day of work, the 31-year-old Copley made 18 saves to win his second straight start.
It was his first shutout since beating the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-0 last Feb. 11.
Trevor Moore scored two goals, while Carl Grundstrom, and Trevor Lewis added one each. Pierre-Luc Dubois recorded two assists as the Kings won for the ninth time in 11 games (9-1-1) and improved to 8-1-1 in November.
Los Angeles also improved to 5-2-2 against the Eastern Conference and 11-0-1 when scoring first this season.
Winless in his previous four appearances, Montreal’s Jake Allen got the start and made 26 saves, but his club was held scoreless for the first time and fell to 2-5-0 since Nov. 12.
With both teams recording wins Friday, the effects of playing back-to-back appeared early.
Los Angeles, which has scored at least four goals in 12 of its 19 games, produced just four shots on Allen in the first half of the opening period.
The Canadiens did not post their initial shot on Copley until 11:36 when Mike Matheson recorded one on the penalty kill – 148 feet away — from the Montreal side of the ice.
The Kings scored the first goal when Dubois brought the puck through the neutral zone, crisscrossed with Grundstrom and slid a circle-to-circle pass to the left winger. Grundstrom one-timed a blast from above the right dot for his seventh goal at 15:28.
In the opening 20 minutes, which featured little offense, the Kings outshot Montreal 9-1.
Both clubs killed off penalties in the first half of the second period, but Montreal captain Nick Suzuki nearly tied it on the far post with a partially open cage. His shot in tight banged off the post.
After Montreal denied the Los Angeles power play, Moore wrapped a shot around the net and in at 9:55 for a 2-0 lead that stood through two periods.
In the third, Lewis made it 3-0 at 3:14 after a steal by Jaret Anderson-Dolan from defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic. Lewis whipped in his third tally.
Moore’s second goal at 13:26 of the final period – his 11th overall – finalized the scoring.
–Field Level Media
