Kempe, Copley do in Pens
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LOS ANGELES -- Adrian Kempe became the first Los Angeles player to score four straight goals, Pheonix Copley got his second career shutout and the Kings rolled to a 6-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
On a night the Kings retired the No. 23 jersey and unveiled a statue of Dustin Brown, Kempe did two things that were last accomplished by their former long time captain, who led the team to two Stanley Cup titles.
Before Kempe, Brown was the last Kings' skater to have four goals in a game and three goals in a single period.
"It was a special night for him and for us as well, so we're happy that we got the win for him," Kempe said.
Kempe became the seventh player in the last 30 years to score four straight goals and first since David Backes did it for St. Louis in 2015.
"I mean, it's pretty cool, I guess. But it's not something I think about," Kempe said. "I think I had chances for five, six too, so yeah just one of those nights."
Copley, who signed a $1.5-million, one-year extension on Friday, stopped 25 shots for his first shutout with the Kings. Copley's last shutout was with Washington in 2018.
It was his 16th victory of the season, which ties his career-high from the 2018-19 season with the Capitals.
"The first game coming off a break can always be kind of a toss up on how we're feeling, so it was good to get back into the groove and get our legs under us and get a win with it," he said.
Anze Kopitar had three assists for the Kings, who were playing their first game since Jan. 31. Los Angeles also got goals from Jaret Anderson-Dolan and Alex Iafallo while Rasmus Kupari, Kevin Fiala and Drew Doughty each added two assists.
"I think that after watching the Dustin Brown ceremony and having the Stanley Cup come out, if you didn't have a spark to play already, it put a little more into the game," Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. "The guys played well. They were rested, fresh and executed well."
Casey DeSmith allowed three goals in 18 shots before being pulled early in the second, and Dustin Tokarski gave up three goals in 16 shots for the Penguins, who had 59 shots on goal in Friday night's 6-3 victory over Anaheim.
"We had some really good looks early and could have got a lead right away but I thought their goalie made some big saves for them. It got away from us as the game went on," Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said.
Kempe had all three goals during the second period, making him the first Los Angeles skater since Jeff Carter on March 4, 2013, against Nashville to have a natural hat trick. Ironically, Carter was on the ice Saturday with the Penguins.
Kempe, who leads the Kings with 26 goals, had his hat trick during a 13-minute span. He gave Los Angeles a 3-0 lead 1:58 into the second period when he beat DeSmith on his glove side with a shot from the left faceoff circle.
At 5:18, Kempe took a cross-ice pass from Kopitar and put in a snap shot that went under Tolarski's blocker. Kempe then completed his third career hat trick at 14:27 on the power play when he put in a loose puck in front of the net.
Kempe got his second power-play goal on a one-timer at 15:09 of the third.
Late Friday
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Evgeni Malkin and the Penguins began their West Coast road trip with a milestone night.
Malkin had two assists to become the third player in franchise history to reach 1,200 career points as the Penguins set a franchise road record with 59 shots on goal in a 6-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Friday night.
Pierre-Olivier Joseph had two goals and an assist to tie a career high with three points. Kasperi Kapanen and Bryan Rust each had a goal and an assist while Jeff Carter and Jake Guentzel also scored.
"I thought it was a pretty dominant performance," Sullivan said. "We had the puck a lot and generated a numerous amount of scoring chances."
Malkin reached his milestone with the primary assist on Rust's goal at 10:04 of the third period, which put Pittsburgh up 5-1. He joined Mario Lemieux (1,723) and Sidney Crosby (1,472) as the only Penguins players to reach that mark.
"I don't want to say it's just numbers, but it's huge," Malkin said. "It's a big number and I'm trying to keep going."
Malkin also is the fourth active player in the league to reach 1,200 points, behind Crosby, Washington's Alexander Ovechkin (1,464) and Chicago's Patrick Kane (1,214). It was Malkin's seventh multi-point game in his last 11.
Crosby frustrated
LOS ANGELES -- There aren't many occasions anymore when one can say Sidney Crosby did something in a game for the first time.
Saturday night, though, he accomplished a first he hoped to avoid.
The Pittsburgh Penguins' superstar received a game misconduct for the first time in his 18-year NHL career midway through the third period of a 6-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
The two-time league MVP was battling for position with Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson in front of the net and was knocked to the ice.
Anderson ended up being called for cross-checking. Anderson and Crosby exchanged words as Anderson skated to the penalty box and Crosby ended up shoving Anderson. Both players ended up getting 10-minute misconduct penalties, but Crosby's got elevated to a game misconduct -- which carries an automatic ejection -- after continuing to chirp at referee Garrett Rank.
"I could tell he (Anderson) was saying something. I don't know what he was saying because we were pretty far from each other. I got closer and that happens often in a lot of scrums," Crosby said. "Honestly, I was shocked that I was getting kicked out of the game. I had no idea."
Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said he didn't receive a reason on why Crosby received a game misconduct.
"I don't think Garrett had any interest in giving us an explanation," Sullivan said.
The 20 penalty minutes were the second highest Crosby has had in 1,160 career games. It is only the fifth time he has had at least 10 minutes of penalties in a game.
While Crosby was surprised to get the game misconduct, he wasn't about to say how he really felt.
"I mean, can I really say what I think anyway? Let's be honest here," he said.