It took only a little more than five minutes for the Vegas Golden Knights to seize control of the Los Angeles Kings.

They scored. Then again. Then again. And then one more for good measure.

The Knights breezed past the Kings with a four-goal explosion midway through the first period, claiming a 4-1 win at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday night in their final game before the Winter Olympics break.

Both teams played the second night of a back-to-back. The Knights (27-16-14) had the luxury of making their collective drives from Summerlin to the rink after defeating the Vancouver Canucks 5-2 on Wednesday.

Los Angeles had to travel from their home after losing 4-2 to the Seattle Kraken at Crypto.com Arena.

An hourlong flight shouldn’t have thrown off the Kings (23-19-14), but they looked uninspired — like a team that’s sitting outside of the playoff picture after now losing for the fourth time in five games.

The Knights, meanwhile, looked like they were ready to head to Italy — especially their Olympians.

Mark Stone had a goal and two assists, Jack Eichel and Pavel Dorofeyev had a goal and an assist each, and Mitch Marner scored all in a span of 5:20 to give the Knights a 4-0 lead at 13:49 of the opening frame.

The Kings got on the board at 15:03 on a breakaway goal from left wing Trevor Moore, but it was a welcomed performance from goaltender Adin Hill to finish with 32 saves in his best outing since returning from a three-month absence due to a lower-body injury.

That was all the Knights needed. The five-minute explosion came on the Knights’ first six shots. They finished with 11 in the first period against Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg, who ended with 18 saves.

The past two weeks were as deflating as one could imagine for the Knights, with seven losses in eight games. Two wins later, they head into the three-week break with a four-point lead for first place in the Pacific Division with a game in hand on the Edmonton Oilers.

Revisionist history immediately points to what would’ve happened had the Knights had that slide that included a five-game losing streak.

But they accomplished what they needed to do heading into this break. They emptied the tank. Italy calls for some, while a long winter’s nap awaits the others.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.