CHICAGO — Winless through their first six games of the season, the Kings went into the finale of their five-game road trip with victories in three of their past four contests.
They held the Chicago Blackhawks in check for much of the game on Tuesday night, but they couldn’t finish their trip with another win.
Wyatt Kaiser snapped a third-period tie, Spencer Knight made 25 saves and the Blackhawks beat the Kings, 2-1.
Chicago halted its three-game slide while improving to 3-4-0 on a seven-game homestand. Roman Kantserov scored in the second period, and the Blackhawks killed off a double-minor penalty on defenseman Sam Rinzel for high-sticking.
A Kings turnover in the defensive zone created the opportunity for the Blackhawks, and Kaiser picked up his first goal of the season at 7:17, beating Anton Forsberg through the goaltender’s legs with a well-placed wrist shot from the left circle. It was the 11th goal for the defenseman in 187 career games.
Samuel Helenius scored the only goal for the Kings, who tallied a season-best six goals in Monday’s victory over the New York Rangers. Forsberg stopped 25 shots to close their 3-2-0 trip. Quinton Byfield paced the Kings with six shots, and Alex Laferriere had five.
Kings captain Drew Doughty and forward Corey Perry were scratched after they played in Monday night’s 6-3 win.
The Blackhawks played without defenseman Bowen Byram, who missed his fifth consecutive game with an upper-body injury.
The Kings got off to a fast start, emerging with a goal after the Blackhawks were unable to clear a puck sitting on the red line. Jared Wright’s shot trickled past Knight, and Helenius poked it home at 2:31 for his first goal of the season.
After registering just one shot over the first five-plus minutes of the game, the Blackhawks ramped up their attack. Forsberg turned aside Patrick Kane’s slick backhand move midway through the first period and denied Artyom Levshunov on an odd-man rush in the opening moments of the second.
The Kings carried their 1-0 lead deep into the second period. But Joel Armia was whistled for tripping at 14:26 and interference at 16:29, and Kantserov tied the score at 16:40, putting a bouncing puck past Forsberg off a feed from Connor Bedardfor for the rookie’s team-high fifth goal of the season.
Referees whistled the Blackhawks’ Sam Rinzel for a 4-minute double-minor for high-sticking late in the period but Chicago killed the penalty, which overlapped into the third.
The Blackhawks went 1 for 3 on the power play and improved to 4 for 38 (10.5%) with the man advantage through 12 games. They converted 16.9% of their chances last season, ranking 29th in the NHL.
The Kings went 0 for 3 on the power play.
UP NEXT
The Kings host the Ottawa Senators on Thursday at 7 p.m.
More to come on this story.