Jeff Carter put two behind Corey Crawford as the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks in downtown Los Angeles by a final score of 4-3.
It is always a fun time when these two clubs meet on the ice and tonight was no different.
The chances came flying in as soon as the puck dropped, with both sides coming flying out of the gates. Brandon Saad produced the first save of the encounter as he ripped a shot near the blue line, but Jonathan Quick was able to react and pushed the puck into the boards.
The visiting team got the first goal of the night through the ever present Patrick Kane. After Daniel Rundblund had his initial shot deflected by Brayden McNabb, the puck fell perfectly for Kane, who had an easy finish and made no mistake to give the Blackhawks an early lead.
Kings center Jeff Carter had been in a bit of scoring drought recently, but he turned that around with a couple of beautiful goals to sandwich a Patrick Sharp effort. For his first, McNabb looked to take a shot through traffic but laid it off to Carter instead, who turned back towards the goal after being in line with the net and ripped one beyond Crawford to level the game at one.
Then it was the work of the powerplay that scored the next two goals in the game. Chicago regained the lead with less than ten minutes left to go in the first period as Sharp found the back of the net following good work from Kane. The scorer of the first goal was walking the puck in towards goal when he saw Sharp wide open above the left circle. He hit Sharp with a very accurate pass, who finished the play off with a laser into the back of the net.
As the second period was trying to find its feet, Los Angeles answered through Carter's second goal of the night. The Los Angeles Kings forward won the puck near the boards and found himself in a bit of space, allowing him to fire the puck past Crawford's glove side.
Chicago took their third lead just two and a half minutes into the final frame. Teuvo Teravainen won the puck and worked it down low into the offensive zone, skating excellently, before dropping it off for for Andrew Shaw, who finished off the move with a nice little wrister that beat Quick to make it 3-2 to the visitors.
In his first game back since contracting mononucleosis at the start of the month, Tyler Toffoli got two points, including the Kings third goal of the game. Robyn Regehr pinched the punch along the boards to keep it in their offensive zone with Carter finding Dwight King. King found Toffli with a nifty little pass and LA's number 73 slid it past Crawford.
The go-ahead goal came with a little more than three and a half minutes left to go in the game as Jake Muzzin got a bit of help with his shot deflecting off of Hjmalrsson's stick and ending up into the back of the net.
Los Angeles will now take its annual Grammys road trip, with their first stop being in Boston to take on the Bruins this Saturday. Chicago will continue their West Coast trip by facing off with the Anaheim Ducks in their next game Friday night at the Honda Center.