Turcotte has 3 points, Kings ease past Canucks

VANCOUVER -- Alex Turcotte had two goals and an assist in the game's first 10 minutes, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 at Rogers Arena on Thursday.

The three points and two goals are both NHL career highs for Turcotte, a 23-year-old playing his 69th game after being picked No. 5 in the 2019 NHL Draft.

A variety of injuries limited Turcotte to just 103 games with the Kings and the Ontario Reign of the American Hockey League over his first three pro seasons, and 55 in the NHL and AHL combined last season. But he’s played 37 of Los Angeles' 42 games so far this season.

“It's been everything I've dreamed of and to go through the adversity earlier in my career, this definitely feels good,” said Turcotte. “But I want to keep pushing. I'm not satisfied. I want to keep going and see where I can go from here.”

Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala each had a goal and assist, and Darcy Kuemper made 20 saves for the Kings (25-12-5), who scored on three of their first four shots to end a two-game losing streak that followed five straight wins.

Los Angeles had three goals in its past three games, including a 1-0 loss at the Edmonton Oilers on Monday, before scoring three times in the first 9:42.

“We talked about this morning we needed to get more goals on the board, and we did that tonight, and we still played great defense,” Turcotte said.

Quinn Hughes scored and Thatcher Demko made 16 saves for the Canucks (19-15-10), who have one win in the past seven games (1-4-2).

“Honestly, just a couple of bad reads,” coach Rick Tocchet said. “I thought we were going to start well. I thought some guys had skating legs. We just made some egregious, egregious plays. Pinching, wrong decisions at the wrong times, you can’t do that. Some guys are just making some really bad reads.”

Turcotte put the Kings ahead 1-0 on the first shot of the game 51 seconds into the first period, beating defenseman Filip Hronek, who got caught pinching inside the Kings blue line at the other end, to the net on a 2-on-1 to redirect Kempe’s centering pass over the right pad of a sliding Demko.

Vancouver didn’t generate a shot on consecutive power plays before Turcotte made it 2-0 at 9:18. Left unchecked in the low slot, Turcotte converted a rebound off Demko’s left pad from a Fiala shot from inside the blue line. The play started with Fiala walking around J.T. Miller to create room for himself.

“Miller came at me so after the move I made on Miller, I had a lot of time,” Fiala said. “I was a little surprised but still I had a lane to shoot, so didn't overthink it too much, and just shot it. … Sometimes you just have to simplify things and we did and [Turcotte] found the loose end there and it's a nice goal.”

Turcotte already has 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) this season.

“He's been really good for us. I guess you'd call it a bit of a surprise, I think even for us,” coach Jim Hiller said. “We didn't expect to see him playing as much as he is and playing as well as he is. The thing I like about him is he's very responsible, plays both ways, good through the neutral zone, D zone blocks shots, so it's really a credit to him. He's taken a little bit longer than some of his peers, but he's got it going now.”

Kempe scored a pretty goal off the rush 24 seconds later to make it 3-0. Anze Kopitar made a one-handed pass to Turcotte, who made a blind backhand pass from below the goal line to Kempe, who cut around Demko across the top of the crease to give the Kings three goals on four shots at 9:42.

“[Kopitar] made a great play just to get it to me, and I stick lifted the defenseman that was in my way, and I knew there was support behind me and it was great for him to be there for me and definitely it was a nice play,” Turcotte said.

Hughes scored on a screened wrist shot to cut it to 3-1 at 14:52 of the second period, but Fiala restored the three-goal lead on a power play just over a minute later. Fiala came out of the penalty box with the teams playing 4-on-4 and skated onto a 2-on-1 with Trevor Moore, keeping the puck and shooting past Demko’s glove from outside the top left hash mark to make it 4-1 at 15:58.

“They scored so they got a little momentum, the crowd went back at it so it was a good goal to shut them down,” Fiala said.

Warren Foegele scored from the side of the net, catching Demko looking the other way from in tight, at 11:36 of the third period for the 5-1 final.

“Just gave up too many rushes, too many turnovers, not playing the way we want to play, getting outworked,” Hughes said. “All of the above.”

Despite the recent struggles, Hughes thinks the problems that plagued the Canucks on Thursday are fixable.

“I'm an optimistic guy and I believe in our group. In saying that, it's game 44 tonight and we need to be figuring our stuff out, quickly,” Hughes said.

NOTES: Vancouver finished 0-for-5 with one shot on the power play and is now 1-for-10 over the past four games. The Kings were 1-for-3 with the man advantage. … It’s the eighth time in 42 games this season that the Kings have scored five or more goals, and the 12th time in 44 games the Canucks have surrendered that many, including nine times at home, where they fell to 7-9-6. … Kuemper is 9-1-2 since Dec. 7 and trails only Connor Hellebuyck (12-1-2) of the Winnipeg Jets, Logan Thompson (10-1-1) of the Washington Capitals and Stuart Skinner (10-2-1) of the Edmonton Oilers in wins over that span.