The LA Kings had a breakout game offensively, as they skated to a 6-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday evening at Crypto.com Arena.

Neither team found the back of the net in the opening 20 minutes for the second straight game between these two sides. Kings forward Quinton Byfield came the closest to opening the scoring, as he hit the post from the slot late in the period.

Early in the second period, however, the Kings started the scoring through forward Warren Foegele. Foegele and forward Trevor Moore combined to get the hosts on the board for the second straight game, with Moore returning the favor from Foegele’s assist on Thursday. Moore won the puck along the boards and fed Foegele in the high slot, where he one-timed the puck past Chicago goaltender Spencer Knight and in for a 1-0 lead.

The Kings doubled their lead late as the power play got off the schneid with a big goal. After he took a feed from forward Kevin Fiala, forward Andrei Kuzmenko made a nice move to the net from below the goal line, pulling the puck onto his forehand into the middle of the ice. Although his shot was initially stopped by Knight, momentum carried it over the line for his fourth of the season, putting the hosts ahead 2-0.

Los Angeles capped off a strong period with a late goal to take a three-goal lead into the second intermission. Working in from the point, defenseman Brandt Clarke moved his way into the slot with the puck. With forward Corey Perry providing an excellent screen in front of Knight, Clarke picked his spot, high glove side, for his fourth goal of the season, as the Kings opened up a 3-0 advantage.

Clarke made it two goals on the evening inside the first five minutes of the third period, as he activated to join the rush and cashed in with a pinpoint shot at the back post. Clarke worked his way down the left wing, took a feed from forward Adrian Kempe and buried his shot, back-bar and out, on the blocker side for the first multi-goal game of his NHL career and a 4-0 lead for the Kings.

With the teams skating 4-on-4 just over 90 seconds after Clarke’s tally, defenseman Mikey Anderson got in on the action with a nice goal of his own. Anderson took a pass through the slot from forward Phillip Danault and worked his way into the left-hand circle. With time, he fired high glove side, past Knight and in for his second goal of the season and the third goal this game by a Kings defenseman, putting the hosts ahead 5-0.

Forward Alex Turcotte made it 6-0 with a terrific individual effort down the left wing. Turcotte showed his speed and strength to get around his defenseman and shield him off, driving to the net aggressively. Turcotte’s shot was stopped but the rebound kicked back off his shin and in for his second goal of the season and a six-goal lead for the hosts.

Hear from Clarke, Turcotte and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s victory.

Brandt Clarke

Alex Turcotte
On scoring his first career goal at Crypto.com Arena
Yeah, it’s been forever. It’s definitely a relief to just have that over with and hopefully the floodgates open and I can put in more consistently. I’ve definitely known for a while, so it’s good it’s over with.

On if tonight’s offensive breakthrough relieves a bit of the pressure on the scoring
For sure. It’s been tough treading the last little bit, scoring, and we all know it, it’s not a secret. To get six, it felt great and we were making a lot of plays there, you could tell that we were playing a little bit more free, which is good. A lot of us have been struggling offensively, so we’ve been gripping our sticks a little too much. Definitely it’s nice, but it’s one game, so we’ve got to build off of it.

On the team’s approach and mindset in tonight’s game
I think we just had a good mindset going into today. We knew we didn’t play great last game. We got some good bounces today as well and that’s sometimes all it takes and you kind of feel good about it. I think once you see a couple go in, it’s just natural instinct to just loosen up a little bit and you get a little bit more confident with the puck.

On his goal tonight
Yeah, Dewey and Mikey made a great breakout play and Perrs kind of set a moving pick on one of their guys and freed me up some space for me. I just used my speed and I knew I was taking it the whole way, I didn’t even think about passing, which I’ve got to have that mindset more. So, that was nice and I got lucky. He made a good save, but it hit off me and went in, so I’ll take it.

Jim Hiller
On the way things went during the final two periods
I thought when we scored our second goal, something changed. I think it felt like at least the players, every one of them, went 10 pounds lighter, and we were just quicker and more fluid. And you guys watched it too. We had talked about holding sticks really tight. I think we saw the example of them loosening up.

On getting offense from all four lines and the defense
That’s important. When you’re not scoring a lot, it’s great to score like this, but it’s also great to have it spread out. I think somebody told me 12 or 13 players were on the scoresheet offensively tonight. So obviously not just goals, but assists. So you’d like to see everybody get on there if you could, but it’s a really good night for us. And you know, Byfield hit the crossbar, Edmundson had one and Moore had one too. So there were other opportunities.

On the importance of getting that secondary scoring
Well, we will take it from anybody, but it’s nice to have it all the way through the lineup. We had Perry on Clarke’s goal. Perry set the screen so you don’t get an assist. Well, my in mind that’s an assist all day long and it’s got a higher value than many assists, right? So you have that. You have Kuzmenko on the power play and you have Turcotte. I was just told that was Turc’s first goal in Crypto. So, big night for him. That’s pretty cool. He’s scored goals obviously, and played well to get one at home, makes us happy.

On the importance of a power play goal getting the team going
I think no matter what way we scored the second goal it would have been similar. But, I think the fact that it was power play, that it was Kuzmenko who was so good for us on the power play last year and hadn’t scored in a while, I think those factors definitely weighed into it.

On Kuzmenko’s power play positioning leading to that goal
I mean, we’ve had him and others kind of all over the place, as you know, through the stretch that we really struggled so bad. That’s his spot and I think he was happy to get back down there. He made the great play to Kopi when he didn’t score earlier and we saw that last year too. So get the puck into his hands, give him the trust and the confidence to try and do his thing.

On getting this type of a win leading into a stretch of road games
This morning we talked a lot about it, this team, since I’ve been here, we haven’t had a lot of poor performances, but when we have, we’ve seemed to bounce back pretty well. And I thought this was going to be a real test today and it was very clear. You could tell by the intensity in the room for us prior to going out for the game, the players were dialed in. They were ready to play.

Notes –
– Defenseman Brandt Clarke (2-0=2) scored his fourth and fifth goals of the season to secure the first multi-goal game of his career. With his effort this evening, Clarke ties his career-high five goals from last season. Clarke becomes the 10th different blueliner in Kings history to record a multi-goal outing before turning 23 years of age. Clarke now has 10 multi-point games in his career and is
the 11th different defenseman in team history to record as many outings at age 22 or younger.
– A native of Elk Grove, Ill., forward Alex Turcotte (1-1=2) provided his fourth helper of the campaign before scoring his second goal of the season to push the Kings’ lead to six goals. Turcotte now has five points (2-3=5) in nine career games played against Chicago.
– Defenseman Drew Doughty (0-2=2) picked up his seventh and eighth assists of the season as part of his 134th career multi-point outing to become the third different skater to have a multi-point performance for the Kings tonight. Doughty now sits six points shy of 700 in his career.
– Forward Warren Foegele (1-0=1) netted his fifth goal of the season. With his assist on Trevor Moore’s goal on Thursday night, this marks the first time in his career he’s recorded back-to-back points (1-1=2) against the Blackhawks.
– Forward Andrei Kuzmenko (1-0=1) found the back of the net for the fourth time this season, his ninth point (5-4=9) in 11 games played against the Blackhawks. The tally was Kuzmenko’s third power play goal (PPG) of the season, tying Anze Kopitar (3 PPG) for the most by a Kings skater this season.
– Defenseman Mikey Anderson (1-0=1) scored his second goal of the season to extend the Kings’ lead to 5-0 in the final frame.
– Forward Trevor Moore (0-1=1) collected his eighth assist of the campaign, extending his home point streak against the Blackhawks to an eighth game (4-5=9), dating back to March 24, 2022. Moore becomes the fourth player in franchise history to record a home point streak of at least that length against Chicago, joining Butch Goring (5-11=16 in 8GP), Bernie Nicholls (9-8=17 in 10GP) and Marcel Dionne (6-14=20 in 11GP).
– Forward’s Kevin Fiala (0-1=1), Corey Perry (0-1=1), Adrian Kempe (0-1=1), Phillip Danault (0-1=1) and Alex Laferriere (0-1=1) all registered helpers. With Danault’s assist tonight, he moves two points away from hitting the 400-point plateau in his career.
– Goaltender Darcy Kuemper turned aside all 23 of Chicago’s shots this evening to secure his 10th shutout as a member of the LA Kings, tying Kelly Hrudey and Stephane Fiset for the fifth most in franchise history.
– Per NHL PR, the Kings scored six goals in a shutout win for the first time since March 20, 2024 (6-0 W vs. MIN). The last time they had more in a shutout victory was Nov. 8, 2016 (7-0 W at TOR).

The Kings are scheduled to travel to Salt Lake City, Utah tomorrow to begin a two-game roadtrip.