Quinton Byfield scores twice, Kings halt hot Flames, 5-3
By Dan Greenspan, The Associated Press on December 24, 2023.
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Quinton Byfield scored twice, Trevor Moore got his team-leading 16th goal, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Calgary Flames 5-3 on Saturday night. Alex Laferriere and Pierre-Luc Dubois also scored, Cam Talbot made 29 saves, and the Kings avoided their first three-game losing streak on home ice. “You kind of sit on that last game that you play and, obviously, it’s good to get the win and kind of not sulk over the break,” Laferriere said. Blake Coleman had two goals, scoring on both the power play and penalty kill for the Flames, who had won three straight and picked up a point in five straight. Rasmus Andersson also scored, and Jacob Markstrom allowed four goals on 33 shots. “I feel like we should have had two or three more wins on this stretch, and we left some points on the table,” Coleman said. Los Angeles took charge in the second period on goals by Laferriere and Moore, which characterized a return to aggressive and direct offense after a poor run with four losses in six games. Laferriere put in Drew Doughty’s pass off his skate for a 3-2 lead at 6:28 of the second, and Moore beat Markstrom over the goalie’s right shoulder midway through the period for a two-goal lead. “I thought we were significantly better when we had the opportunity, especially early in the game,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said of his group’s willingness to attack the right areas. “Later in the game, we didn’t get many of those opportunities just because we weren’t in a position to attack.” Those scores came after Coleman tied it up short-handed off the rush. He had poke checked the puck away from defenseman Jordan Spence in the neutral zone to set up his 11th goal. It was his fourth short-handed tally. Talbot was barreled over by Coleman during the play, with his helmet knocked off and neck torqued back, but stayed in the game after he was examined on the ice by a trainer. Coleman had a power-play goal midway through the third period to cut Calgary’s deficit to 4-3, firing in the rebound after Talbot stopped Adam Ruzicka’s try. Coleman is the first Flames player to have power-play and short-handed goals in a game since Noah Hanifin did it against Arizona on Nov. 25, 2018. His goal was the lone success in six tries on the power play, something Calgary coach Ryan Huska said must improve to compete with the best teams in the league. “The one shot rebound is what you’re looking for a lot of times, the goal Blake scored for us,” Huska said. “It’s just finding a way to make sure our power play knows that they can be and need to be difference makers for us.” Byfield beat Hanifin in a foot race to add an empty-netter with one minute remaining. It was Byfield’s third two-goal game, and he hit double figures for the first time in three NHL seasons. “I’m not sure initially that he thought he should be in that race, and then when he decided, he won that race. He also used his reach and length there and got body position, so those three elements on an empty net goal, basically, those are character traits of his right now,” McLellan said. UP NEXT Flames: Host the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday night. Kings: Host the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday night. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL 22-21
