LOS ANGELES — In a battle of weary legs, the Kings kicked considerably harder than the San Jose Sharks, whom they punted at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night, scoring a season-high eight goals while surrendering just one.
The Kings were playing their sixth game in nine calendar days, going 4-2-0 despite their hectic schedule. The Sharks were skating in their third match in four nights, the first of which went to a shootout.
The Kings broke a points tie with the Edmonton Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division, now holding a two-point lead heading into a final stretch that has nine games in store for both clubs. The Kings are now 27-4-4 at home, signifying a franchise record for home wins with six home games left on their slate. On home ice, they own the NHL’s best points percentage, second lowest goals-against average, a top-10 penalty kill and even a top-10 offense, thanks to last weekend’s outburst of 14 goals in two games and Sunday’s rampage.
San Jose lost for the 15th time in its past 20 games, keeping them two points behind – or ahead of, depending on one’s perspective – the Chicago Blackhawks for the league’s worst record and best draft lottery odds. Those two teams selected first overall in the past two drafts, with Chicago taking Connor Bedard in 2023 and San Jose selecting Macklin Celebrini last year.
Adrian Kempe and Warren Foegele scored two goals apiece. Andrei Kuzmenko deposited one goal and set up two others. Trevor Moore had a goal and assisted on one by Phillip Danault. Trevor Lewis tallied. Captain Anže Kopitar dished out three assists. Quinton Byfield, Drew Doughty and Vladislav Gavrikov each contributed two helpers. David Rittch made 22 saves.
Cameron Lund mustered the solitary goal for San Jose. Georgi Romanov’s fifth NHL appearance didn’t go well as he allowed eight goals on 35 shots.
The Kings dogpiled two more tallies in the third period during a span of 33 seconds.
Lewis scored his fifth goal this season off a long shot with 4:38 on the game clock after Kuzmenko lit the lamp with 5:11 to play, scoring off the rush from between the circles for his ninth goal of a campaign split between three different teams.
The Kings had already busted the game open in the second stanza, allowing a goal early and then responding with four unanswered tallies.
They moved to 29-1-2 when holding a lead through 40 minutes, heading into the dressing room up 6-1 after scoring two goals 35 seconds apart in the final minute (19:03 and 19:38).
Kempe’s second marker of the game and 31st of the year came after Kuzmenko turned a backhand pass to Gavrikov, who one-touched the puck off his backhand to Kempe for an authoritative one-timer.
Foegele’s deflection of Mikey Anderson’s shot snuck through Romanov’s five hole to make it 5-1, after Foegele had already scored at the 13:31 mark for Goals No. 21 and 22 as a King. Brandt Clarke’s struck shot Foegele at the net front, where Foegele alertly pivoted to pounce on the puck and pop it past Romanov for his second power-play goal of the season.
Their third goal came off Kopitar’s second brilliant assist of the night. After a recovery by Kuzemenko, he made a no-look, between-the-legs pass out of the corner to hit Moore in stride for his 16th goal of 2024-25.
San Jose had opened the scoring in the frame, with Lund capitalizing on a fortuitous bounce at 4:52, 19 seconds after his penalty expired.
The first period was riddled with penalties, four in total, and the Kings took advantage, scoring one man-advantage marker and adding another de facto power-play goal. They scored six seconds after the Sharks’ first penalty was up and again six seconds before their second one expired.
They also killed a 1:41 two-man disadvantage between those goals, which came at 5:35 and 15:13.
Kempe’s tally gave the Kings a 2-0 lead and his third 30-goal campaign in the past four years. San Jose collapsed around its net but the diligent position of Kuzmenko, the seeing-eye pass of Kopitar and a drive to the net to beat two Sharks by Kempe coalesced on the redirection goal.
They had gotten on the board after Moore controlled a puck below the goal line and passed it to the net front for Byfield, whose pass across for Danault’s kneeling one-timer became the alternate captain’s eighth goal of the season.
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