Anze Kopitar scored his 400th career goal and also had an assist and Cam Talbot made 37 saves as the Los Angeles Kings remained unbeaten on the road with a 4-1 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Trevor Moore and Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored goals for Los Angeles, which became the eighth team in NHL history to win its first seven road games to begin a season and the first since the Pittsburgh Penguins and New Jersey Devils did it in 2009-10.
Jordan Spence added two assists for the Kings, who completed a 4-0-0 road trip.
Kopitar scored an empty-netter to seal it with 11.8 seconds left and become the fourth player in Kings history with 400 goals, joining Luc Robitaille (557), Marcel Dionne (550) and Dave Taylor (431).
William Karlsson scored a goal and Adin Hill made 29 saves for Vegas, which took its second straight regulation loss after the opening the season with a 12-game point streak (11-0-1), the longest by a defending Stanley Cup champion in NHL history.
Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead at the 11:30 mark of the second period. Spence’s one-timer from the point caromed off the leg of Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo to Kempe, who tapped the rebound into a wide-open right side of the net. It was the fifth goal of the season for Kempe, who also extended his point streak to seven games.
Moore made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 15:58 of the second. Spence once again set the score up with a shot from the point that Moore, stationed by the left side of the crease, redirected past Hill for his seventh goal of the season.
The Kings extended their lead to 3-0 at the 2:42 mark of the third period on a power-play goal. Dubois poked in a rebound of a Kempe shot that ricocheted off the end boards to the left side of the crease. It was Dubois’ fourth of the campaign.
Karlsson, left alone at the top of the slot, cut it to 3-1 with 5:27 remaining when he snapped a wrist shot top corner past Talbot’s blocker side for his seventh goal of the season.
–Field Level Media