Foegele has goal, assist for Kings in win against Blue Jackets

LOS ANGELES -- Warren Foegele had a goal and an assist for the Los Angeles Kings in a 5-2 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday.

Trevor Moore scored a short-handed goal, and David Rittich made 24 saves for the Kings (9-4-3), who are 4-1-1 on home ice.

“First period, we all thought was so-so, but liked it a lot better in the second, so everyone is happy to come away with two points,” defenseman Mikey Anderson said.

Dmitri Voronkov and Ivan Provorov each scored, and Elvis Merzlikins made 18 saves for the Blue Jackets (5-6-2), who have lost four in a row (0-3-1). It was the first game of a back-to-back for Columbus, as they play at the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.

“Honestly, I think we played a solid game,” Blue Jackets forward Justin Danforth said. “But at the end of the day, we want to come out with the win. We got to find a way to win games, that’s what playoff teams do, so we got to get back on track.”

Columbus went up 1-0 at 13:26 of the first period on Voronkov’s first goal of the season in his fourth game. Danforth picked off Kevin Fiala’s pass in the neutral zone and found Voronkov driving to the net off the rush.

Fiala was benched for the rest of the first.

“Didn’t like the play, and there was a consequence,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said.

Vladislav Gavrikov tied it 1-1 at 4:16 of the second period. He scored on a wrist shot from the top of the right circle through traffic.

Los Angeles took a 2-1 lead at 6:12 when Foegele finished off a 3-on-1 rush from the left face-off dot. Samuel Helenius, drafted No. 59 overall in the 2021 NHL Draft, had the secondary assist for his first point in his NHL debut.

“I thought the second was a little more direct,” Anderson said. “We played a little more below their goal line, got a few O-zone shifts. I think it was a little cleaner from us, maybe a little simpler, but that’s the recipe sometimes.”

Moore made it 3-1 30 seconds into the third, chasing down the loose puck after Phillip Danault chipped it ahead before beating Merzlikins with a wrist shot from the left circle. Moore has six points (one goal, five assists) during a five-game point streak.

“I thought [Cole Sillinger] was making like a spin-o-rama, D-to-D pass, and that’s kind of green light,” Moore said. “That’s my guy anyway, so I feel like I can jump that. And then Phil [Danault] made a good play on it, and knocked it down in the neutral zone so I was kind of already on the way there. I didn’t feel like I was kind of giving up any defense for that.”

Provorov scored a power-play goal to make it 3-2 19 seconds later, finishing the rebound from Danforth’s slot shot.

“Right after, we actually had a couple chances to make it 3-3,” Provorov said. “Just tough turn of events, but as a team, we have to learn from it and move on.”

Alex Laferriere tipped in Joel Edmundson’s point shot at 7:05 to make it 4-2.

Brandt Clarke scored into an empty net at 19:29 on the power play for the 5-2 final.

The Kings have scored 27 of their 54 goals this season in the third period.

“If you have a lead, it’s easier sometimes to get a little greedy and make plays, but you can catch the other team cheating for offense maybe a little bit more,” Anderson said. “But I think it’s maybe just the way the game flows sometimes. Sometimes it’s early. Right now, it happens to be the third, which is a good problem to have if you’re scoring a little bit late.”

NOTES: Danault extended his assist streak to five games. He has six points (one goal, five assists) during that span. … Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe each had two assists. … Danforth had two assists for his second multi-point game of the season.