Kings stay hot at home with win over Capitals

Mikey Anderson scored in the third period and the Kings defeated the Washington Capitals 4-2 on Monday night for their fourth win in a row.

Adrian Kempe, Phillip Danault and Vladislav Gavrikov also scored, and Pheonix Copley made 20 saves as the Kings won their sixth straight game on home ice.

Alex Ovechkin had a power play goal and Rasmus Sandin had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who failed to win in California for a third straight. Darcy Kuemper had 37 saves.

Anderson restored the 3–2 lead to Los Angeles from the rush with his third goal, which was set up by Quinton Byfield’s fourth assist on a four-game streak.

Kempe scored a goal with an empty net with 1.8 seconds remaining to seal Los Angeles’ victory.

Oveckhin tied the score 2–2 at 2:31 of the third, burying his signature one-timer from the left circle during a two-man advantage after Copley saved two previous tries. It was his 36th goal of the season and 11th on the power play.

Danault put the Kings up 2-1 with 32 seconds left in the second inning, and knocked down Viktor Arvidsson’s shot, sending it tumbling under Kuemper.

Both the Capitals and Kings bought defenders ahead of the trade deadline, and it was Sandin and Gavrikov who opened the scoring for their new teams.

Sandin was somehow able to beat Copley five holes with a backhand shot from his knees after noticing a possible one-timer from Sonny Milano midway through the second.

Despite being brought in to provide physicality and address an imbalance between left- and right-handed defenders, Gavrikov showed good offensive instincts, crashing into the net to deploy Kevin Fiala’s rebound to make it 1-1.