The Los Angeles Kings are playing some of their best hockey right before they hit the road for a seven-game road trip. On Saturday night, they extended their win streak to five games with a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild.
The Kings led from start to finish in this game as Adrian Kempe would give them a first period lead with a goal in the final minute of the opening period. In the second, it was Alex Laferriere with a power play goal and it remained 2-0 for most of the rest of the game.
The lead would get pushed to three after Trevor Moore had an empty net goal and Darcy Kuemper was very close to a shutout victory but Yakov Trenin would beat him for the Wild's only goal of the night. Finally, Moore added a second empty net goal for a final score of 4-1 and helped push the Kings record to 16-8-3 on the season.
When looking at the Game Scores on Hockey Stat Cards, it is clear that it was really a team effort as no player had a Game Score higher than 2 but there were five players between 1.86 and 1.45 for the Los Angeles Kings.
Vladislav Gavrikov (1.86)
The Kings defensemen led the way for the team with a Game Score of 1.86 after being on the ice for 22:42 with three blocked shots and a +/- of 2. In addition to the time on ice, he led the Kings in short-handed time on ice at 2:54.
This season has been one of the best for Gavrikov in his career as he has really stepped up with the absence of Drew Doughty. The Kings desperately needed someone to fill that void and while he hasn't entirely, he has helped keep this group together in Doughty's absence.
Trevor Moore (1.79)
Trevor Moore is next for the Kings with a Game Score of 1.79, which is signficantly higher than his season average of 0.85. In the last three games, Moore has three goals, one assist and is +3 and has clearly settled in on this top line with Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe.
Adrian Kempe (1.45)
These are games that fans are coming to expect from Adrian Kempe as his game score is right in line with his season average (1.40). He finished the game with one goal, one assist, and two blocks and added to his team-leading goal total, which sits at 13.
Alex Laferriere (1.45)
Alex Laferriere has found his shot this season and is keeping pace with Kempe in the chase for the team lead in goals. With the power play goal against the Wild, he has now matched last season's total at 12.
On the season, he now has a shooting percentage of 21.1%, which is significantly higher than his 8.2% last season. It will be interesting to see if he can keep this percentage all the way through the season and if he can, he should easily break 30 goals this season.
Mikey Anderson (1.45)
While Gavrikov had a great game, Mikey Anderson also had an exceptional game playing alongside him against the Wild. He would lead the Kings in time on ice at 24:22 and finished the game with one assist and one blocked shot.