MONTREAL — David Rittich bounced back with 25 saves in a 4-1 Los Angeles Kings victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
Alex Laferriere scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period and Mikey Anderson produced the equalizer for Los Angeles (2-1-2) after Montreal took a 1-0 lead in the first. Andreas Englund doubled the lead with just under three minutes remaining before Adrian Kempe added an empty-netter.
Rittich stood tall one night after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs as the Kings snapped a three-game skid.
Justin Barron replied with the lone goal for Montreal (2-3-0), which lost its second game in a row at the Bell Centre. Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots in his third straight start. Montembeault also denied Kings forward Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.
Defenceman David Savard skated in his 800th game.
Takeaways
Kings: Despite playing the second night of a back-to-back, Los Angeles bounced back after allowing a combined 14 goals against the Ottawa Senators and Maple Leafs in their last two outings.
Canadiens: The Canadiens played with five defencemen for 40 minutes after Mike Matheson exited the game, with Lane Hutson logging 30:05 in ice-time. The 30-year-old Matheson led Canadiens blueliners with 62 points last season. When or how he sustained the injury was not immediately clear.
Key moment
Laferriere deflected a point shot from Jordan Spencer 1:37 into the second period for his third of the season. Kings forward Alex Turcotte assisted on the goal. Turcotte’s father, Alfie, played 85 games with the Canadiens between 1983 and 1986 after the franchise drafted him 17th overall in 1983.
Key stat
Los Angeles has Montreal’s number. The Kings defeated the Canadiens a seventh consecutive time, including four straight in Montreal.
The Canadiens were 0-for-5 on the power play Thursday.
Up next
Canadiens: Visit Patrick Roy and the New York Islanders on Saturday.
Kings: Visit the Anaheim Ducks in the sixth stop of a season-opening seven-game road trip because of renovations at Crypto.com Arena.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press