LOS ANGELES — All the Kings’ men were present at Crypto.com Arena on Thursday night, but their castle was stormed by the Chicago Blackhawks, 2-1, just the same on another night of low-wattage offense for the hosts.
Trevor Moore scored the Kings’ only goal as they were held to two goals or fewer for the seventh time in the past nine games. Drew Doughty (foot) and Warren Foegele (upper-body) returned to action to give the Kings one of hockey’s rarities, a full complement of players. The Kings asked a lot from goaltender Darcy Kuemper and he gave them 34 saves.
Connor Bedard and Wyatt Kaiser each scored for Chicago, and Frank Nazar chipped in two assists. Spencer Knight repelled 26 pucks.
Chicago won for just the second time in eight games, and the Kings have also dropped six of their last eight decisions.
Thursday’s match unraveled in the second period for the Kings, though early, frequent, late and ubiquitous futility on the power play exacerbated matters.
They were 0 for 3 in the first period and 0 for 5 in the game, including a 6-on-4 advantage for the final 1:26 of the game. They have scored on only five of their past 63 power-play opportunities.
The first period was kept scoreless largely by the grace of Kuemper, who made 13 saves, including an athletic cross-crease denial of Andre Burakovsky.
Kuemper continued to make challenging stops in the second period, including on Bedard and Nazar on a partial breakaway. But he and the Kings couldn’t keep Chicago off the board during their first full power play of the night, at 6:17, or after an agonizing series of events for Phillip Danault in the final gasp of the period.
After Joel Edmundson was sent to the box, Bedard owned the moment. He won the draw and played pitch-and-catch with Tyler Bertuzzi before crashing the net with total disregard for the presence of Cody Ceci and Warren Foegele. He received a return pass and stuffed the puck inside the back post. Bedard’s 18th goal of the season tied him with Sidney Crosby for third in the NHL.
Not one but two puck-handling gaffes by Knight left Danault staring wide-eyed at a wide-open net. He couldn’t reach the first pass into the slot and then he couldn’t push the puck across the line before Connor Murphy intervened all but divinely.
Danault, on the other hand, might be cursed. He had another sterling opportunity in the first period but still has no goals in his past 35 games, dating to last season.
Adding insult to injury, the Blackhawks beat the buzzer with a goal by Kaiser following a miscue by Brian Dumoulin. After Bertuzzi and Oliver Moore grinded out the forecheck, Moore set up Nazar for a one-timer. Though he fanned, he alertly gathered the puck and found Kaiser zipping past Corey Perry to make it 2-0.
With 9:21 to play in the game, Moore broke up Knight’s shutout and added intrigue to the contest. Foegele skated the puck down, securing possession behind the net. His backhand feed found Moore gliding ahead for a shot that banked off Knight and in for his fourth goal of the season.
During the final minute of five-on-five hockey, Kuemper and Knight exchanged stellar saves. Kuemper denied Bedard at one end and Knight stoned Alex Laferriere at the other.
A late penalty to Bedard put the Kings up one man and Kuemper’s dash to the bench gave them a two-man advantage.
They had three shot attempts, two that were blocked by Murphy and one that turned out to be friendly fire, ending the game with a sad whimper.
The teams will meet again Saturday night in the same arena.
More to come on this story.