Kuemper, Kings conquer Blues

ST. LOUIS -- Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves, Tyler Toffoli scored twice, and the Los Angeles Kings extended their winning streak to four with a 4-1 win against the St. Louis Blues at Scottrade Center on Friday.
Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe scored for the Kings (16-8-3), who are 4-0-1 in the past five games after a 1-6-1 stretch. Los Angeles defeated the Washington Capitals 5-2 on Thursday.

Toffoli and Kopitar each scored in the first 6:12 of the first period for a 2-0 lead.
"I think we just had a really good start and we know how it feels when you kind of get into a hole early in games," Toffoli said. "And we did a good job of doing that and we were ready to play tonight."
WATCH: [All Kings vs. Blues highlights]
Kuemper has not lost in regulation this season (4-0-2).
"I was excited to get the opportunity to play against St. Louis," Kuemper said. "You don't always get those opportunities so I was excited when I found about it and I think our whole team was and really got up for it and wanted to prove something out there."

Patrik Berglund scored for the Blues (17-8-1), who have lost two in a row. St. Louis ended a five-game homestand 2-3-0.
"This is, I would say, the first time this year ... we've lost a couple games in a row before, but this is the first time I would say where we weren't right," Blues coach Mike Yeo said. "We weren't right to start the game and certainly we didn't find it along the way."
Carter Hutton made 18 saves on 21 shots for the Blues through two periods before being replaced by Jake Allen, who stopped six of seven shots.
"Obviously down 2-0 right away there quickly. It's obviously a tough start when you get in a hole like that," Hutton said. "… Obviously the third one's a bad one and that ended my night."

Despite being outshot 20-11 in the first period, the Kings took a 2-0 lead.
Toffoli scored at 1:43 to make it 1-0, skating past defenseman Jay Bouwmeester and cutting in on Hutton before tucking a shot between the goalie's pads.
Kopitar made it 2-0 at 6:12 with a rebound goal in front of defenseman Alex Pietrangelo after Hutton turned away Alex Iafallo's shot from the right circle.
Berglund scored a power-play goal at 15:17 of the second period on a high-slot redirection to cut the lead to 2-1.
Kempe scored at 4-on-4 using Joel Edmundson as a screen to make it 3-1 at 18:56.
Toffoli's second came after Blues defenseman Vince Dunn lost the puck in his zone, Tanner Pearson centered, and Toffoli redirected a shot past Allen at 10:54 of the third period to make it 4-1.

Goal of the game

Toffoli's goal at 1:43 of the first period.

Save of the game

Kuemper's breakaway save on Vladimir Tarasenko at 7:30 of the second period.

Highlight of the game

Kempe's goal at 18:56 of the second period.

They said it

"It was a good hockey game. It was back-to-back against two really good teams that play hard and play heavy games. I thought the guys really dug in tonight. Got a great performance from your goaltender and we had some real quality looks. We continued to get better as the game wore on. I thought we got good contributions from everybody."-- Kings coach John Stevens
"I thought tonight we were pretty easy to play against. Especially in our building, we should be playing the body, making it tough on them to exit their zone, but they were breaking out the puck way too easy tonight. That's the result we're going to get. We've got to spend more time in their zone." -- Blues defenseman Joel Edmundson
"You could tell when we got to the rink it was on guys' minds. Guys were talking about it. You never want to lose to a team twice in a row and we were really aware of that tonight and we really came to play." -- Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper on losing 4-2 to St. Louis on Oct. 30

Need to know

Kings center Torrey Mitchell, acquired in a trade with the Montreal Canadiens on Nov. 23, had his immigration status resolved on Friday and he will join the team in Chicago and practice Saturday. ... Toffoli has three goals in the past two games. ... After 19 points (seven goals, 12 assists) during a NHL-high eight-game point streak, Blues center Brayden Schenn has gone four straight games without a point.

What's next

Kings: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, NBCSCH, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Blues: At the Minnesota Wild on Saturday (6 p.m. ET; FS-N, FS-MW, NHL.TV)