Spencer Knight stopped 41 shots in his team debut and Ilya Mikheyev and Ryan Donato each tallied a goal and assist to lift the host Chicago Blackhawks to a 5-1 win against the slumping Los Angeles Kings on Monday.
Chicago has won consecutive games for the first time since earning three straight wins from Dec. 15-19. Outshot 42-19, the Blackhawks overwhelmed Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper nonetheless. Los Angeles was outscored 15-4 on a winless, three-game road trip to Dallas, St. Louis and Chicago.
Knight shined in his first game for the Blackhawks after arriving Saturday in a trade with the Florida Panthers. Chicago also acquired a conditional 2026 first-round pick in exchange for defenseman Seth Jones and a 2026 fourth-round pick.
Los Angeles challenged Knight early, recording 10 shots over the first 7:05 on the way to outshooting Chicago 17-7 in the first period.
The Blackhawks opened the scoring at 10:57 of the first period, grabbing an early lead on just their third shot of the night. Alec Martinez sent a wrist shot from the right point through heavy traffic to beat Kuemper.
Kings captain Anze Kopitar tied the game just 42 seconds later, converting a chance off the rush. Los Angeles disrupted a Chicago scoring chance at the other end and pushed the puck through the neutral zone, with Kopitar taking a pass from Alex Turcotte and scoring on a wrist shot from the low left circle.
Mikheyev put Chicago ahead to stay 46 seconds into the second period. After Kuemper denied Teuvo Teravainen in front of the net, Teravainen collected the rebound and sent a backhand pass to a waiting Mikheyev in the left circle.
Ethan Del Mastro made it 3-1 Chicago at 13:30 of the second, darting down the left boards after a faceoff win and sending a puck that deflected off a King’s skate and into the net.
An Andreas Athanasiou goal 1:20 into the third extended the lead to 4-1. Colton Dach stole the puck from LA’s Jordan Spence behind the net and fed an open Athanasiou in the slot.
Donato capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 1:30 remaining. Teravainen, who earned two assists, extended his point streak to five games.
Kuemper made 14 saves.
–Field Level Media
