Anze Kopitar had a goal and two assists to help the Los Angeles Kings end the visiting Vegas Golden Knights’ four-game winning streak with a 6-3 victory on Wednesday night.
Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala each contributed a goal and an assist, Brandt Clarke had three assists and Darcy Kuemper made 23 saves for the Kings, who have won three of four following a 4-2 loss at the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored twice, Tanner Pearson also scored and Ilya Samsonov made 20 saves for the Golden Knights, who gave up the game’s first four goals.
Warren Foegele scored a highlight-reel goal to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead at 13:58 of the first period.
Samsonov came out of his crease to stop a length-of-the-ice pass, but the puck went to Foegele, who scored with a no-look backhand that slid between the pads of Samsonov as he slid back into position.
Kempe stretched the lead to 2-0 at 14:40 after he retrieved a loose puck in the neutral and drove into the Vegas zone before scoring with a wrist shot from above the right circle.
Alex Laferriere collected a pass from Mikey Anderson while cutting into the slot and turned and scored with a wrist shot for a 3-0 lead at 10:11 of the second period.
Kopitar scored 44 seconds later to stretch the lead to 4-0.
Clarke collected a pass off the wall from Kempe, spun away from a defender at the top of the right circle and made a backdoor feed to Kopitar for the tap-in goal.
The Kings turned the puck over behind their net and Alexander Holtz made a backhand pass out front to Pearson, who scored with a one-timer to cut the lead to 4-1 at 14:58 of the second.
Shortly afterward, Vegas forward Tomas Hertl left the game after taking a big hit from Anderson and he did not return.
Fiala scored with a wrist shot from the right circle off a drop pass from Kopitar to make it 5-1 at 6:23 of the third period. It was the 800th assist of Kopitar’s NHL career.
Joel Edmundson followed with a goal from the left point to increase the lead to 6-1 at 8:03.
Dorofeyev scored from in close during a 5-on-3 power play to cut it to 6-2 at 11:04, and again from a backhand to make it 6-3 at 17:03.
–Field Level Media