Kings stay hot with win against Rangers

LOS ANGELES --Cal Petersen made 22 saves, and Trevor Moore had two assists for the Los Angeles Kings in a 3-1 win against the New York Rangers at Crypto.com Arena on Monday.

Petersen was making his second straight start after he made 21 saves in a 4-0 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday in his first game since Dec. 6. He was in NHL COVID-19 protocol from Dec. 18-28.
"Just like [Jonathan Quick] wasn't going to hand the keys to the kingdom over to Cal, Cal's going to fight to get them back, and there's no better situation than that," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "I think I said the other day, the one thing that Cal couldn't control was how well Jonathan played, and he was happy for him, and I'm sure 'Quickie' is happy for Cal right now. But having both of them playing well, not a lot of teams can say that, and if we have that, we're lucky."

Phillip Danault, Blake Lizotte and Adrian Kempe scored for the Kings (18-13-5), who are 4-1-0 in their past five games.
Mika Zibanejad scored, and Alexandar Georgiev allowed two goals on 38 shots for the Rangers (23-10-4), who have started 1-2-0 on their season-long five-game road trip.
Kris Knoblauch, coach of Hartford of the American Hockey League, coached New York after Gerard Gallant was placed in COVID-19 protocol Sunday.
"We talked about before the game what they do in the neutral zone, and we just decided to work hard and not smart," Rangers forward Chris Kreider said. "We need to come with speed, support each other, and we made it really easy on them walking out of the zone, and then ultimately trying to get our feet going a little bit too late, and getting beat and giving them rushes and letting them advance the puck up the ice."
Danault scored 55 seconds into the second period to put the Kings ahead 1-0. He backhanded in the rebound of a shot by Moore, who forced a turnover by K'Andre Miller in the neutral zone before breaking in on a rush.

Lizotte made it 2-0 at 3:41, kicking the rebound of a shot by Viktor Arvidsson to himself and scoring on a backhand in the crease.
Moore, who had the secondary assist on the play, has scored seven points (two goals, five assists) in his past four games. McLellan pointed to Moore having a more permanent role on a line with Danault as a reason for his uptick in points.
"We have some responsibility for his lack of production, the coaching staff, because we played him everywhere. He was a center, he was a left wing, he was a right wing. He was on the top line, he was on the fourth line," McLellan said. "I think finding a home on a line has been good for him. Jumping around all over the place is never good for anybody, but he was the one guy we trusted to do that."
Zibanejad cut it to 2-1 at 11:27 of the third period when he redirected Filip Chytil's turnaround shot in front, but Kempe shot into an empty net at 18:43 for the 3-1 final.
Kreider said the Rangers were frustrated by the Kings' 1-3-1 alignment in the neutral zone and did not do enough to work through it until the third period.
"I think that's what you saw at the beginning of the second period, and ultimately, it's on us to settle down and regroup and commit to doing the right things to advance the puck and play the right way," Kreider said. "We did that a little bit too late when we'd already given up the lead at that point. You didn't nip it in the bud early in the game, so it's on us. It's on me."
NOTES:Danault has scored five points (three goals, two assists) in his past four games. … Arvidsson has scored six points (two goals, four assists) in his past four games. … Zibanejad has scored three points (two goals, one assist) during a three-game point streak. … Rangers forward Artemi Panarin returned after missing four games in COVID-19 protocol. He was minus-3 in 21:30 of ice time. … Rangers forward Barclay Goodrow was placed in COVID-19 protocol prior to the game. … Lizotte's goal was his first game-winner in the NHL.