Kings get 3 quick goals in 2nd period, surge past Canadiens

MONTREAL -- The Los Angeles Kings scored three straight goals in a span of 4:05 early in the second period, leading to a 5-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

Joel Edmundson and Quinton Byfield each had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles (8-5-4), which has won two straight and three of its past four games. Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves.

The Kings have won four straight on the road and improved to 7-1-2 away from home on the season.

“It’s weird, like two years ago, same thing,” Byfield said. “We were hot on the road, last year we were hot at home, now we’re hot on the road I guess again. So, I can’t say anything about that, it’s kind of how it goes sometimes, so obviously you want to make it both home and away and get some wins at home, but we’ve got to finish the road trip strong.”

Josh Anderson scored, and Sam Montembeault made 21 saves for the Canadiens (10-4-2), who had their six-game point streak come to an end (4-0-2).

“I thought [Kuemper] played really well tonight,” Anderson said. “We had our looks, definitely. They wanted it more than us.”

Anderson gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 19:17 of the first period, scoring with a one-timer past Kuemper’s glove from the left face-off dot off a feed from Lane Hutson from the slot.

“We felt pretty good about the period, so to come out down one was disappointing,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “But I thought we did a good job not to overreact and just understand that the way we’re playing, just come out and do it again.”

Edmundson tied it 1-1 at 1:17 of the second. He whistled a one-timer over Montembeault’s glove after Anze Kopitar won a face-off back to Brandt Clarkeat the left point.

Edmundson’s shot at 96.75 mph was the hardest recorded on a goal in the NHL this season, according to NHL EDGE.

“Obviously, he has a bomb, so it’s hard to go to the net when he’s shooting,” Byfield said. “It was good to see that go in. He’s been ripping those all year and we want him to continue to do that.”

Byfield put the Kings up 2-1 during a delayed penalty at 4:17. He scored into an open right side on the rebound of Adrian Kempe’s shot from the top of the slot.

Fiala then made it 3-1 at 5:22, finishing on a wrist shot into the top of the net from the right side after Montembeault inadvertently steered a loose puck to him off his stick.

Joel Armia pushed it to 4-1 at 11:08 of the third period after he stripped the puck from Hutson and drove in to score unassisted with a wrist shot glove side.

Warren Foegele shot into an empty net from just inside the blue line at 15:32 for the 5-1 final.

“Obviously, in the second period we kind of dug ourselves a hole,” Montreal defenseman Noah Dobson said. “I thought we had a good push after that, a couple of chances, but just didn’t capitalize. And then in the third period we didn’t get much, a lot of turnovers in the neutral zone, they just kind of sat back. But it’s something we can be better at and learn from and get ready for Thursday (against the Dallas Stars).”

NOTES: Hutson got his 75th assist in his 100th game, tying Sergei Zubov and Stefan Persson for the second-most by a defenseman through his first 100 NHL games, behind only Mark Howe (79 assists). Hutson, who recorded his 82nd career point, also tied Gary Suter for 11th in NHL history for points by a defenseman in his first 100 games.