The Blackhawks took a trip to Los Angeles in hopes of getting back at them after they’d been shut out by the Kings on Friday, March 15th at the United Center. However, Chicago was unable to get back at Los Angeles but they did score two goals to avoid another shutout. It was a good comeback for the Kings after a 4-1 loss against the Dallas Stars on Saturday, March 16th. Both Nick Foligno and Kevin Korchinski scored for the Blackhawks, Philipp Kurashev recorded two assists, and Connor Bedard recorded his 33rd assist of the season to give him 54 NHL career points.
Blackhawks lineup against the Kings:
Johnson – Bedard – Kurashev
Blackwell – Dickinson – Anderson
Reichel – Athanasiou – Foligno
Slaggert – Donato – Raddysh
Vlasic – Jones
Korchinski – Megna
Kaiser – Zaitsev
Mrazek
Soderblom
Kings lineup against the Blackhawks:
Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe
Moore – Danault – Fiala
Lizotte – Dubois – Laferriere
Lewis -Turcotte – Arvidsson
Anderson – Doughty
Gavrikov – Roy
Englund – Spence
Talbot
Rittich
Los Angeles took the lead at 7:57 of the first – Alex Laferriere backhanded his 11th goal of the season off Blake Lizotte’s rebound. Nick Foligno tied it 1-1 soon after at 5:33 during a 5-on-3 power play. A centering pass by Philipp Kurashev had gone in past Cam Talbot off his shin.
Vladislav Gavrikov put the Kings back in front, off a wrister for his fifth of the season at 10:28 of the middle frame from the blue line. At 8:08, Anze Kopitar extended the lead to 3-1 from the right circle with a wrist shot off a pass by Adrian Kempe. With little time left in the second period, Kopitar went for his second of the game and his 22nd of the season to give Los Angeles a three-goal lead on the power play. He redirected the puck into the net after Petr Mrazek had broken Kempe’s centering pass… This was Kopitar’s 1,199th NHL career point in 1,360 games (415 goals, 784 assists).
Phillip Danault scored off a pass from Trevor Moore to make it 5-1 for his 16th goal of the season at 14:13 of the third period. Scoring the second and final goal for Chicago, Kevin Korchinski cut it to 5-2 when he stuck in his second in the past two straight games at 5:44. With 2:50 remaining in the final frame, Trevor Lewis tipped in a shot by Pierre-Luc Dubois’ shot for the 6-2 final.
Seth Jones on the Blackhawks’ first period and the loss: “I thought we had a pretty good start, the first period was spot on. We were forechecking well, getting pucks in, and kind of getting through the neutral zone that went through theirs, and then we kind of started turning pucks over and they capitalized. That’s what they do best, they’re a very defensive team and they boxed us out well around the net. So we didn’t get much action there in front of the goalie… then they just kind of kept coming out at us in waves and we couldn’t put a stop to it.”
Notes:
– Petr Mrazek allowed six on 24 shots for the Blackhawks.
– Seth Jones has 400 NHL career points.
– Colin Blackwell left in the third period after a hit by Kevin Fiala, sustaining an upper-body injury, and made no return. There had been no update, unfortunately.
– Adrain Kempe recorded three assists, Kevin Fiala and Pierre-Luc Dubois each recorded two assists, and Vladislav Gavrikov had a goal and an assist. Cam Talbot made 22 saves for Los Angeles.
With both Gavrikov’s goal and an assist, he has 101 NHL career points.
– Alex Turcotte missed the remainder of the third period after sustaining an upper-body injury, and there also had been no update for him either.
– Anze Kopitar will attempt to become the 52nd player in NHL history with 1,200 career points in the Los Angeles Kings’ next game, which is on Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild.
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