The Pittsburgh Penguins fell to the Los Angeles Kings last night 6-0 at Crypto.com Arena in LA.
Forward Adrian Kempe scored four straight goals for the Kings and became the first player since forward Dustin Brown, who had his jersey retired in pre-game, and a statue of his honor unveiled, did on April 5th, 2018, against the Minnesota Wild. Forward Anze Kopitar also had three assists for the Kings, who improved to 29-18-7. Goalie Phoenix Copley had a 25-save shutout, his first since December 22nd, 2018, when he was a member of the Washington Capitals. He is also 16-3-1 and has tied his career high in wins, which he set with the Caps in 2018-19.
Goalie Casey DeSmith allowed three goals on the first 15 shots before he was pulled for Dustin Takorski, who made 13 saves in relief. The Penguins fell to 26-17-9 and were on their second stint of a back-to-back.
Just over two minutes into the first period, forward Janet Anderson-Dolan re-deflected a shot past DeSmith to give the Kings the 1-0 lead. At 17:47, forward Alex Iafallo made it 2-0 Kings with a quick shot beating DeSmith.
Just under two minutes into the second, Kempe scored his first after putting a shot off the post and in, making it 3-0 Kings. Just five minutes into the second, Kempe got his second after he beat Tokarski blocker-side to make it 4-0 Kings. At 14:27, Kempe then scored on the power play to give him the natural hat trick and the 5-0 lead for the Kings. He became the first Kings player to score three goals in one period since once again Dustin Brown did it on March 7th, 2020, once again against the Wild.
At 15:09 of the third, Kempe scored as a 5-on-3 was expiring to give him his fourth goal of the game and gave the Kings a 6-0 lead. Kempe became the seventh player in the past 30 years to score four straight goals. Forwards David Backes, Ilya Kovalchuk, Dany Heatley, Patrik Elias Wendel Clark, and Peter Bondra have done it previously.
Kings forwards Kevin Fiala and Rasmus Kupari, as well as defenseman Drew Doughty, each had two assists.
