Kings hold off late charge by Rangers for win
Phillip Danault, Blake Lizotte and Adrian Kempe scored in the Kings’ 3-1 win over the New York Rangers on Monday night.
Trevor Moore had two assists and Cal Petersen made 22 saves for the Kings, who have won four of five.
Mika Zibanejad had a goal and Alexandar Georgiev made 36 saves for the Rangers, who have lost two of three to start their longest road trip of the season.
Kris Knoblauch served as temporary coach for New York after Gerard Gallant tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday. Knoblauch, who coaches the Rangers’ AHL affiliate, took a red-eye flight from Hartford, Conn., and arrived in Los Angeles at 2:30 a.m. Monday.
The Kings came out buzzing in the second period, scoring twice in the opening 3:41. Danault got his seventh goal on a backhand chip following up Moore’s shot 55 seconds in, and Lizotte put in the rebound of Viktor Arvidsson’s sharp-angle shot for the 2-0 lead.
Zibanejad got to the edge of the crease for a redirect of a pass from Filip Chytil to pull the Rangers back within 2-1 with less than eight minutes remaining in the third. But Kempe scored into an empty net with 1:17 remaining to seal it.
Moore continued his strong play in an elevated role since the holiday break, including picking up the secondary assist on Lizotte’s fourth goal.
Former Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin is joining the Kings as a senior advisor to GM Rob Blake.
Moore found himself on the second line because Danault, Alex Iafallo and Dustin Brown all had stints in COVID-19 protocol, and the 26-year-old Southern California native has made the most of his promotion with three goals and five assists in his past six games.
Both teams had key players return after being on the virus list: New York’s Artemi Panarin (missed four games) and Iafallo (missed two).
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