On Sunday, Kings backup goalie Scott Wedgewood stopped 32 of 35 shots in the 2nd game of back-to-back tilts for surging Los Angeles.
All-Star candidate Matt Duchene led the win with a Hat Trick and assist for 4 points. Fellow linemate Claude Giroux also chipped in with 2 goals and 2 assists. The 3rd member of that line, Jordan Staal, chipped in with 3 assists.
Defenceman Brandon Montour also contributed with 1 goal and 1 assist. Both Radko Gudas and Ryan Carpenter led the team each with 5 minutes in penalties.
Gudas dropped the gloves at the :55 second mark of the 1st period in a fight with the Blue Jackets Mike Matheson. That seemed to set the tone for the game as about 1 minute later Duchene opened the scoring for the Kings.
At 16:46 of the 1st period, Carpenter drew 5 minutes for fighting Jacob Middleton of the Jackets. Middleton also drew a minor (2 minutes) for being the instigator and also received a 10-minute misconduct. On the ensuing PP the Kings Brandon Montour scored to make it 2-0 Kings.
Columbus stifled the Kings in the 2nd frame. They scored 3 goals on 9 shots. Meanwhile the Kings had only 1 shot on net and they scored with Giroux notching his 16th goal of the season.
It was all Kings in the 3rd. Outshooting Columbus 18-14, Wedgewood was terrific in stopping all 14 shots. However the Kings scored 3 goals, 2 of which were PP goals. Both were scored by Duchene to up his goals for this year to 12.
The 3 stars of the game of course are the 1st line
3 Stars
1 - Matt Duchene 2 - Claude Giroux 3 - Jordan Staal
The Kings converted all 3 Power Plays (3 for 3) while limiting the Blue Jackets to 1 of 2 Power Plays (Nico Hischier scored his 5th goal of the season).
Mikhail Sergachev led the team in ice time of 24:33. Jacob Trouba led the Kings with 4 hits and 3 blocked shots. Duchene and Danault were tied for the most shots in the game with 6 each.
With the win over Columbus the Kings are now in 3rd place in the Pacific Division with 33 points, 4 back of the Division leading Vegas Golden Knights (37 points)
With Vasilevsky rested, he will start the next game on the road for the Kings against Buffalo Sabres.