Kings face Blues trying to solve home woes

Kings face Blues trying to solve home woes

The Los Angeles Kings aim for back-to-back home victories for the first time this season when they host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night.The Kings, who are a league-best 7-0-0 on the road, snapped a three-game home losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday, just the second home victory in eight games this season (2-3-3). Only the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks (1-4-0) had fewer home wins.The Kings’ Cam Talbot made 30 saves against the Panthers to improve to 8-3-1, tied for second in wins in the NHL. Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar scored what proved to be the game-winning goal in the second period for Los Angeles, which is six points behind Pacific Division-leading Vegas with two games in hand.”It’s no secret that we need to make this building a little tougher to play in, and I think tonight’s a good step in the right direction,” Talbot said.Special teams played a key role in the win over the Panthers. Los Angeles was a perfect 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and survived another 2:17 of 6-on-5 at the end of the game when Florida pulled goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for an extra attacker.Kopitar’s game-winner came on one of the Kings’ two power plays.”Our PK was absolutely amazing tonight,” Talbot said. “We just kept battling. It felt like they had possession for the whole two minutes a couple times. We bent but we didn’t break. … I think our PK won us the game tonight.”St. Louis comes in off a 5-1 loss at San Jose on Thursday in the first game of a four-game western road trip that includes a Southern California weekend back-to-back against the Kings and Anaheim Ducks, followed by a Wednesday contest at Arizona.The loss to the Sharks snapped a three-game winning streak for the Blues that included an impressive 8-2 victory at Colorado last Saturday and a 5-0 shutout of Tampa Bay.

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