(Los Angeles) The Canadian finished his trip to California against the best of the three teams from the Golden State and he hit a wall.
Trevor Moore scored two goals, Pheonix Copley stopped 18 shots and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Montreal hockey club 4-0 on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena.
The Habs began their trip to California by defeating the Anaheim Ducks and the San Jose Sharks. A victory against the Kings would have allowed him to sweep his opponents on this trip for the first time since the 1999-2000 season. He nevertheless compiled a winning record for the first time since the 2009-10 campaign.
Martin St-Louis’ squad, however, was never in the game against the Kings, who won a fifth game in a row.
Only the trio of Nick Suzuki, Alex Newhook and Brendan Gallagher generated a few scoring chances at even strength. Otherwise, the Kings spent little time in their zone.
Jake Allen made 26 saves in front of the Canadian net (9-10-2), who was shut out for the first time this season.
The Canadian is 0-for-17 on the power play in his last six games. He was 0-for-3 against the Kings.
Carl Grundstrom and Trevor Lewis also scored for the Kings (13-3-3). Pierre-Luc Dubois collected two assists.
The Canadian will end his trip with a stop in Columbus on Wednesday to face the Blue Jackets. He will be back at the Bell Center on Thursday, when the Florida Panthers are the visitors.
Kings on a mission
Grundstrom opened the scoring at 15:28 of the first period. He beat Allen with a powerful one-timer from the faceoff circle to the goalie’s left.
Moments earlier, Quinton Byfield had cut through the air after a beautiful cross-field pass from Kevin Fiala during a Kings power play.
The Canadian’s best chance during the first twenty belonged to Newhook. However, he missed the target.
The Canadian was credited with only one shot on goal during the first period, the result of a long clearance from Mike Matheson during a numerical penalty.
He then had a 10-7 advantage in shots on goal in the second period, but Copley was perfect in front of the Kings net.
The Kings widened the gap at 9:55 of the second period. Moore beat Allen after going behind the visitors’ net.
Lewis dealt the Canadian a hard blow by making the score 3-0 in favor of the Kings after 3:14 of play in the third period. He took advantage of a pass from Jaret Anderson-Dolan after a turnover by Johnathan Kovacevic and surprised Allen, who did not seem ready on the sequence.
The Kings continued to increase their attacks towards the Canadian’s net and Allen tried to get out of it as best as possible. However, he looked bad on a shot from Moore, who threaded the needle with 6:32 left in the game.