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Every single Los Angeles King forward recorded a point in a 7-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, March 22 at Arena. The Hurricanes came into today’s matchup riding an eight-game winning streak, but that doesn’t matter when you are up against the best team in the NHL on home ice, who now have won seven of their last eight games and five straight in their own building.
It was goals and chances galore for the Kings all game as they were able to capitalize on a lot of the prime scoring opportunities that were basically handed to them on a silver platter by the Hurricanes. Puck possession was in favor of the Hurricanes, and they outshot the Kings 36-25, but it was David Rittich stopping 34 shots for a .944 save percentage and his teammates running up the score that counts.
With their win, the Kings move up to second place in the Pacific Division now tied with the Edmonton Oilers in points with 85 but also have two games in hand.
Nothing about the first period correlated with the numbers up on the scoreboard. The Hurricanes outshot the Kings 13-6 and spent the majority of the period with the puck on their stick, yet the Kings found a way to pot three goals before 20 minutes were up. It all started pretty quickly as Adrian Kempe dashed into the zone before wiring one past Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov just over three minutes into the game.
The newest addition for the Kings, Andrei Kuzmenko, took over for the rest of the period picking up his first point as a King as well as his first goal. On the power play, Kuzmenko fed Anze Kopitar through the slot, who then bounced it off a defender’s skate and into the net. With five seconds left in the first period, it was Kuzmenko involved again. This time it was his turn to unload one from the right circle to give the Kings a 3-0 lead heading into the second period.
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