Kopitar has 3 points, Kings score 6 in win against Blackhawks

LOS ANGELES -- Anze Kopitar had two goals and an assist for the Los Angeles Kings in a 6-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks at Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday.

Adrian Kempe had three assists, and Vladislav Gavrikov had a goal and an assist for the Kings (35-22-11), who moved two points ahead of the Vegas Golden Knights for third place in the Pacific Division. Kevin Fiala and Pierre-Luc Dubois each had two assists, and Cam Talbot made 22 saves.

“This time of the year, the most important thing is to get the two points,” Los Angeles interim coach Jim Hiller said. “We needed somebody, and we were wondering who that was going to be. Nice to see the big guys, and ‘Kopi’ in particular with the two goals.”

Nick Foligno scored, Philipp Kurashev had two assists, and Petr Mrazek allowed six goals on 24 shots for the Blackhawks (19-45-5), who had won three of their past four.

“That’s two games in a row that they showed us why they’re where they are,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said, referring to a 5-0 loss to the Kings at United Center on Friday. “We got to make sure we continue to get better.”

Alex Laferriere gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 12:03 of the first period, scoring with his backhand on the rebound of Blake Lizotte's shot.

Foligno tied it 1-1 at 14:27 when Kurashev’s centering pass went in off his shin during a 5-on-3 power play.

“All due respect to Chicago, but we’re going to play some better teams at the end of this stretch, and we can’t give a period away,” said Kempe, who had been penalized for delay of game seven seconds into the penalty kill. “It could be a huge, huge difference in the points and all that kind of stuff, so we’ve got to be on for 60 minutes here.”

Gavrikov put the Kings back ahead 2-1 at 9:32 of the second period on a wrist shot from the blue line.

Kopitar extended it to 3-1 at 11:52 with a wrist shot from the right circle off a pass from Kempe.

“Really nice goal off the forecheck,” Hiller said. “Part of our game plan was to forecheck. We didn’t do a lot of it, but that one was to a T.”

Kopitar pushed it to 4-1 with a power-play goal at 19:08, redirecting the puck in after Mrazek broke up Kempe’s centering pass.

It was Kopitar’s 1,199th career point (415 goals, 784 assists) in 1,360 NHL games.

“We were looking out there for him,” Kempe said of Kopitar. “He had some good looks and it was close (to reaching 1,200). Obviously, look forward to that next game, but it was a close one tonight. He was hot out there.”

Phillip Danault made it 5-1 at 5:47 of the third period, scoring off a pass from Trevor Moore.

Kevin Korchinski cut it to 5-2 at 14:16, scoring in his second straight game.

“As a young up-and-coming guy that can shoot a puck like he did tonight and last game, we got to make sure he has more opportunities to do that in the offensive zone and not be chasing guys around the D-zone,” Richardson said.

Trevor Lewis tipped in Dubois’ shot at 17:10 for the 6-2 final.

NOTES: Blackhawks forward Colin Blackwell sustained an upper-body injury on a hit from Fiala with 8:39 left in the third period and did not return. Richardson did not have any update. … Kings forward Alex Turcotte sustained an upper-body injury and missed the final 7:43 of the third. Hiller did not have an update.