Moore, Turcotte score, Kings hold off Blackhawks

CHICAGO – Trevor Moore and Alex Turcotte scored first-period goals for the Los Angeles Kings, who held on for a 3-1 victory against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Thursday.

Darcy Kuemper made 17 saves for the Kings (37-21-9), who are 6-1-0 in their past seven games and are third in the Pacific Division.

“I thought it was a really mature win because two goals early, and then that’s it until the empty net (goal late in the game),” Kuemper said. “We didn’t change the way we were playing, made sure we were defending hard all game. That’s a big road win for us."

Connor Bedard scored for the Blackhawks (20-40-9), and Spencer Knight made 30 saves. The Blackhawks, who are 0-5-1 in their past six games, were eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoffs contention with the loss.

“Yeah, they took it to us in the first period,” Blackhawks coach Anders Sorensen said. “A lot of traffic, a lot of shots, a lot of extra rebounds and stuff. Spencer did a good job of keeping us in there. The last two periods, I think we had more quality chances but didn’t go our way.”

Moore gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 8:45 of the first period. He moved into the offensive zone, stopped, moved into the slot and scored on a wrist shot past Knight’s stick side.

Turcotte made it 2-0 at 9:44 when he tipped in Vladislav Gavrikov’s shot from the left boards.

“The ‘D’ were doing a great job getting the puck to the net,” Turcotte said. “I knew (Gavrikov) was shooting, kind of scoped (it) out, got a stick on it. Yeah, good bounce. Right place, right time.”

The Kings outshot the Blackhawks 19-7 in the first period.

Bedard’s power-play goal at 10:50 of the second period brought Chicago to within 2-1. Bedard took a pass from Tyler Bertuzzi and scored from the left face-off circle while going to one knee.

“Yeah, I think we had a couple looks,” Bedard said. “Obviously, after the first period, we got a lot better. I think we didn't create enough 5-on-5 probably, and that's kind of where the difference was.”

Joel Edmundson scored an empty-net goal at 19:41 of the third period for the 3-1 final.

“I would like to have got three or four, make it a little bit easier, but we hung in there,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “First period was good. If you go back to the first period the last time we played here (a 5-1 loss on March 3), we had way more quality chances in that period and came up with (one). So it was nice to see a couple go in. I think that was really important. If we would have come out of there without any after playing that well again, it would have been hard for us. So it was just good to see the puck go in.”

The Kings salvaged a victory in their final game this season against the Blackhawks after losing 4-3 in a shootout in Los Angeles on Nov. 2 and losing the game in Chicago earlier this month.

“Obviously these can be challenging games,” Kuemper said. “They’ve given us some trouble this year. They got a lot of skill, and they kind of wait for you to make mistakes. You’ve got to be patient. Their goalie was making a lot of saves, so you’ve got to stay patient offensively and not take too many chances because that’s what they’re waiting for.

“We definitely owed these guys. They’ve given us trouble, so we wanted to come out and give them our best tonight.”

NOTES: Moore and Turcotte scored less than a minute apart – the 10th time the Kings have scored two goals within 60 seconds this season. The only teams to do so more in 2024-25 are Vancouver (14), Carolina (12), Boston, Seattle and Vegas (all with 11) … Colton Dach, a rookie forward, went to the Chicago locker room late in the third period after sustaining an upper-body injury. He appeared to be favoring his left arm or left shoulder. “We’ll see tomorrow,” Sorensen said. “Kind of day to day right now.” ... Chicago has not qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs since the 2020 season.