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Kings Hold Onto Third Place With 3-0 Win Over Canucks

The second period brought plenty of energy though.

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The Los Angeles Kings needed a win Monday against the Vancouver Canucks with the Seattle Kraken closing the gap in third. And they delivered with a 3-0 victory.

It was a fairly low event first period with just 12 total shots between the two teams. 

There wasn't much energy on the ice or in the crowd. 

The second period brought plenty of energy though.

It started with a similar slow pace but picked up in a big way halfway through.

It center ice Adrian Kempe and J.T. Miller got into a shoving battle and a few seconds later Quinton Byfield buried Akito Hirose and that got the game going.

Just a few minutes later, Sean Durzi held onto the puck a little too long and fed an ill-advised pass to Blake Lizotte in the middle. Lizotte was crunched by Sheldon Dries in front of the Canucks bench and Durzi immediately shed his gloves to respond.

Durzi got the better of Dries but ended up taking an extra two minute penalty for roughing. 

The Kings killed the penalty off the back of a huge Joonas Korpisalo save, denying Miller on a breakaway.

After the penalty kill, the energy picked up massively.

It was a physical, scrappy game for the remainder of the period.

The games first goal came 15 minutes into the second, with Lizotte working down low and feeding a pass to the middle. The puck bounced around a little and on his second swipe at the puck, Arthur Kaliyev was able to just about beat Collin Delia to open the scoring.

A minute after the goal, Kempe and Miller revisited their earlier spat and dropped the gloves. It was a spirited fight with Miller just edging Kempe but no heavy punches landing for either. 

The third period continued the trend of the second. It was a physical, tight period few chances for either team.

The Kings were able to double their lead with four minutes in though. After some nifty passing between Phil Danault and Trevor Moore, Moore fed a trailing Vladislav Gavrikov in the slot. Gavrikov made no mistake and finished over Dellia's glove.

Drew Doughty added a late dagger, firing the puck 200-feet down ice and into the empty net.

The Kings locked it down in the third, allowing just two high-danger chance against in the third per NaturalStatTrick. 

The impact of Mikey Anderson was felt with the Kings allowing just six high-danger chances against and __ goals. 

This win keeps the Kings two points above the Seattle Kraken heading into their final game of the season on Thursday. Seattle has a game in hand and the Kings only have so much control of their own destiny right now. But winning out gives them a good chance to stay in third place.

Korpisalo is also making a strong push for the Game 1 start with his shutout. 

The Kings have a scheduled day off tomorrow and return to the ice on Wednesday. Before finishing the regular season in Anaheim Thursday.

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