The LA Kings made it seven of eight points so far on their current roadtrip, as they skated to a 3-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday evening at United Center.
Chicago scored the lone goal from the first period as forward Connor Bedard was credited with his third of the season to put the hosts ahead 1-0. Forward Ilya Mikheyev’s pass through the slot was blocked down by defenseman Drew Doughty, but it went right back to him and his second effort towards the net deflected off Bedard’s stick, off the post, off the back of goaltender Anton Forsberg’s skate and in for a wonky goal that opened the scoring.
Early in the second period, forward Alex Laferriere buried the third of three Grade-A opportunities to pull the Kings level. On his instance, Laferriere took a feed from forward Corey Perry in the neutral zone and the pair moved in on a 2-on-1 rush across the offensive blueline. Laferriere kept the puck himself and buried a shot, inside the near post, past Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom for a tie game 3:30 into the middle stanza.
Just shy of 90 seconds later, the Kings took their first lead of the game as forward Kevin Fiala scored on an impressive individual effort. Fiala won a battle at the defensive blueline and took a pass from defenseman Brandt Clarke to create a partial breakaway. Fiala exercised patience and rounded the net before finishing with a wraparound on the forehand to put the visitors ahead 2-1.
Inside the final minutes of play, forward Joel Armia added an insurance goal as he hit the empty net from about one foot out to secure the two points. Forwards Adrian Kempe and Joel Edmundson collected the assists on the play.
Hear from Edmundson, forward Phillip Danault and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.