LOS ANGELES — Having gone into Saturday’s game with a league-worst seven points through 11 games played, it should be no surprise that the Chicago Blackhawks were dominated for two periods by a Los Angeles Kings team in clinical form.
But as LA was reminded, tides can turn rather quickly and after some moments of individual quality from the Blackhawks and defensive lapses from the Kings, Chicago found themselves back in contention.
In a 2-0 deficit, Chicago scored a quick pair of goals in the third period, bringing the ‘Hawks back to level footing. Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper, starting his sixth game of the season having split net time equally with David Rittich, will not look back on his game tape fondly.
Chicago’s first goal came from captain Nick Foligno, who weaved between Anže Kopitar and Adrian Kempe and tested Kuemper with a routine wrist shot that the goalie failed to secure. Craig Smith scored Chicago’s second with a well-placed one-timer.
Center Phillip Danault restored LA’s lead with about eight minutes left to play, but the Blackhawks made the most of their man advantage late in the game and forced overtime through Tyler Bertuzzi, who waited patiently for a pass to find him in front of Kuemper.
Chicago looked like it might win in overtime, too, as Connor Bedard displayed his dazzling puck handling to create a pair of quality shots. But Kuemper stood tall, and with the Kings’ OT lines failing to score, a shootout decided the game. Unfortunately for LA, Alex Laferriere—the game’s standout player for the first two periods— missed the Kings’ second shot and effectively lost them the game.
The loss and manner in which it came will frustrate head coach Jim Hiller and co., especially after dominating the opening periods. The Kings wasted no time in getting on the board, taking advantage of a power play four minutes into the first period as Kopitar set up Laferriere with a teasing pass in front of Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek for the 23-year-old’s seventh goal of the season.
Laferriere’s breakout season has been a huge part of the Kings’ early success, and his reputation will only grow further after his game against Chicago where he tallied another goal in the second period. He smoothly collected the puck from Alex Turcotte and slotted it home, having backchecked to recover the puck for LA. Laferriere was balanced in his perspective on the Kings’ outing after the game’s conclusion.
“It’s one of those games that, you’ve got to look at the positives and look at the negatives and try and learn from it,” Laferriere said. “I think we started pretty good and we were rolling them for the first 10 minutes, and then kind of got away from our game.”
The Kings’ penalty kill also stifled Chicago twice in the second period, allowing zero shots during one of the Blackhawks’ man-advantage spells. Over the 65 minutes of hockey played, Mrazek faced almost twice as many shots (40) as Kuemper (21).
Hiller and his staff will probably view this game as a wasted opportunity. The Kings could’ve—and should’ve—improved to 4-0-0 at home against the league’s worst team, but defensive cracks in crucial moments permitted Chicago to slip through and leave with a result. LA ultimately needed someone alongside Laferriere to be clinical with all the goal-scoring opportunities the team created.
In his postgame interview, Hiller identified the second half of the first period as where he thought LA ultimately lost the game.
“I thought if we could’ve continued to play the second 10 of the first the way we played the first 10 of the first, we might’ve been able to create separation and not put ourselves in the position that we ended up in,” Hiller said.
The Kings return to action on the road Monday evening against the Nashville Predators, with the puck drop scheduled for 5 p.m.