LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Kings brought out the brooms and swept the season series against the Winnipeg Jets with their 4-1 win on Tuesday night.
The Kings started the scoring halfway through the second period when defenseman Joel Edmundson took a shot from the point that was deflected right in front of the cage by winger Trevor Moore. Today was Edmundson's 600th game played.
They kept their foot down on the gas pedal with a three-on-two goal only 38 seconds later. Winger Adrian Kempe took the puck down the left wall before dropping it back to a trailing winger Andrei Kuzmenko. The Russian then flung a pass to the back side for captain center Anze Kopitar, who hit a one-timer in the back of the net to make the score quickly 2-0 Los Angeles. After the game, Kuzmenko talked about what he likes about playing with Kopitar and Kempe.
“[They] are two superstars in the league,” Kuzmenko said. “[They] are amazing players. I [am] happy [I] work with him… I like these guys.”
Winnipeg would score their first goal of the game to bring the score within one in the middle of the second period when winger Cole Perfetti hopped out of the penalty box and scored on a one-on-one scenario. After a great pass from center Morgan Barron, Perfetti moved ahead down the right side of the ice, and the lefty ripped a shot to the blocker side of Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper.
Despite letting up the goal, Kuemper had a great game with 18 saves and was a major part of the two huge penalty kills late in the game.
“That’s a dangerous powerplay,” Kuemper said after the game. “To keep them at two goals down was huge. And you know, that was the difference in the game down the stretch.”
The Kings would respond with about five minutes left in the period to put them back up by two goals. After a great defensive play by Kuzmenko to knock the puck loose from defenseman Logan Stanley, the winger took it down the left wall himself on a two-on-one and took a deceiving shot that snuck in five-hole on Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to make the score 3-1.
The final goal for Los Angeles would come from Kempe on an empty net.
Los Angeles would give up two penalties during the third period and killed them both confidently. They have continuously shown that their aggressive style of penalty killing is something that some teams just can't handle.
One team that has consistently broken the press-style penalty kill is the Edmonton Oilers — especially in the playoffs. Over the past three years, the Oilers have gone 45.5% on the man-advantage against the Kings, which is relevant since the two teams will end the season with two games against each other in the next two weeks before likely playing each other in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
With only 19 shots in the game, Winnipeg was kept under 20 in each of the three games they played against Los Angeles this year. This is a great sign for the team heading into playoff season, holding one of the top offenses in the league to a minimum. After the game, head coach Jim Hiller mentioned the team's defense.
“If there’s one team we played extremely well this year, it would be Winnipeg,” Hiller said. “We play a similar style. I think they don’t give up much… both teams, whoever can find the back of the net and get a couple of nice ones.”
After another home-ice win, the Kings will face the Utah Hockey Club in the Delta Center on Thursday at 6 p.m.