After a pleasant return home from a challenging pre-Christmas road trip, the Los Angeles Kings will search for consecutive victories for the first time in nearly three weeks when they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday.
The Flyers also will be in the hunt for consecutive victories after they weathered a 1-4-0 stretch that included a 7-3 home loss to the Kings on Dec. 19.
The Kings’ seven-goal outburst against the Flyers represents their highest scoring game of the season.
While Los Angeles did earn points in five of seven games on its recent trip (3-2-2), stringing together wins proved challenging.
The Kings started the frequent-flyer bonanza with a 3-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Dec. 10 that came at the tail end of a recent six-game winning streak. Overtime losses at Pittsburgh (Dec. 17) and Nashville (Dec. 21) prevented back-to-back wins for Los Angeles.
On Saturday at home, the Kings finally conquered overtime in a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers. Quinton Byfield scored in overtime to cap his two-goal, one-assist performance, and Warren Foegele also had three points (one goal, two assists).
Byfield has eight goals on the season, with five coming in his past six games.
“We’ve been using our speed the last couple games and using our size, and we’re just wearing them down and getting pucks to the net,” Foegele said. “It’s a pretty simple recipe, but we’re sticking with it, and credit to the guys for playing the right way.”
In their victory at Philadelphia, the Kings received goals from Byfield, Foegele and Tanner Jeannot, as well as two each from Kevin Fiala and captain Anze Kopitar.
The Flyers enter off their own victory in Southern California after they got past the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 on Saturday. Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee each scored a third-period goal, while Samuel Ersson made 32 saves.
Noah Cates scored in the first period to extend his goal-scoring streak to five games. He has seven total goals in 32 games.
“I feel like I’ve been playing good hockey for a while,” Cates said. “It’s been going in (the net) for me, but I’ve got to keep playing the same way, playing smart, just playing the right way. That momentum and that positive karma comes to you later on, or whenever, during the season.”
The Flyers have won a game at Los Angeles in each of the past two seasons and have a victory against the Kings in each of the past five campaigns.
Travis Konecny leads Philadelphia with 16 goals and 25 assists for 41 points but does not have a goal in his past four games, starting with the home loss to the Kings. Konecny played in his 600th career game Saturday and had a single shot on goal in 20:17 of ice time.
Philadelphia rookie forward Matvei Michkov has 11 goals and 16 assists but no points in seven games.
“It’s just been a struggle, energy,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said of Michkov, who was benched for the third period on Saturday. “The skating, energy, it’s just not there.”
–Field Level Media
