Cam Talbot makes 24 saves as Los Angeles Kings blank Philadelphia Flyers 5-0
By ANTHONY SANFILIPPO
Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Cam Talbot made 24 saves in his first shutout of the season, and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Philadelphia Flyers 5-0 on Saturday night to extend their point streak to six games.
Los Angeles got off to a fast start behind Adrian Kempe and Anze Kopitar, who scored 18 seconds apart in the first period. Arthur Kaliyev and Trevor Moore scored in the second, and Blake Lizotte added a third-period goal.
It was Talbot’s 29th career shutout.
Los Angeles improved to 6-0-0 on the road.
“It ended up being an excellent trip east obviously,” coach Todd McLellan said. “We’ve had great goaltending and timely goals. Sometimes you have to recognize where the schedule takes you, and they were a team playing the third time in four nights, so we wanted to get on the board first and getting those two goals back-to-back really helped us.”
Talbot has taken the No. 1 job and run with it, going 6-1-1 in his last seven starts.
“He really fits the group,” McClellan said. “He’s got a calm demeanor and he’s confident. He’s done a really good job.”
Cal Petersen made 25 stops for Philadelphia. It was his first start for the Flyers after coming over from Los Angeles in an offseason trade.
Kempe was able to get his stick on a bouncing puck and tap it past a sliding Peterson to open the scoring.
“I’ve always been a scorer,” Kempe said. “I have the most shots on the team so obviously I’m trying to score as many goals as I can.”
Kopitar redirected a shot from Matt Roy over Peterson’s blocker. It was Kopitar’s sixth goal of the season and No. 399 for his career.
Quinton Byfield assisted on each of the first three goals for the Kings.
“He protects pucks really well and gets in on the forecheck really well,” Talbot said. “He’s pretty intimidating. Especially when you can get pucks back on the forecheck like that and go right back on the attack. He’s playing great for us.”
Kaliyev scored a power-play goal 16:01 into the second, and Moore added his sixth goal of the season with 16 seconds left in the period off a turnover from Flyers defenseman Cam York.
York spent the entire third period on the bench after that miscue.
The Flyers lost for the fifth time in the last seven games and were shut out for the first time this season.
“There are things we need to learn,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said. “We almost made it 2-1 on the power play, and then a few little things happened and the next thing you know it’s 4-0. Those are the lessons we need to learn against a really good hockey team. Those are the lessons we need to figure out.”
Philadelphia played its second straight game without starting goalie Carter Hart (mid-body injury) and No. 1 center Sean Couturier (lower-body injury). They are day to day. The Flyers added goalie Felix Sandstrom (upper body injury) to the injured list before the game.
UP NEXT
Kings: Finish their three-game trip at Vegas on Wednesday.
Flyers: Begin a four-game road trip Tuesday in San Jose.
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