MONTREAL — Say what you want about their performance on home ice this season, the Kings are having little trouble winning on the road.
Quinton Byfield and defenseman Joel Edmundson each collected a goal and an assist, and the Kings scored three quick goals in the second period to beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-1, on Tuesday night at the Bell Centre.
Kevin Fiala and former Canadien Joel Armia also scored and Warren Foegele added an empty-net goal for the Kings, who won their fourth straight away from home and extended their road point streak to eight games (6-0-2). Darcy Kuemper made 21 saves as the Kings (8-5-4 overall, 7-1-2 on the road) beat the Canadiens for the ninth consecutive time, their longest active run against another team.
Josh Anderson scored a goal late in the first period for Montreal (10-4-2 overall) and defenseman Lane Hutson, last season’s NHL Rookie of the Year, notched an assist while playing in his 100th career NHL game.
Sam Montembeault made 21 saves for the Canadiens, who dropped to 5-2-1 at home and saw their six-game point streak come to a halt (4-0-2).
Trailing 1-0 after Anderson’s one-timer with 46 seconds left in the first period, the Kings scored three goals in a span of 4:05 in the second, beginning with Edmundson’s first of the season.
Edmundson, who played for Montreal from 2020-23, fired a slap shot from the point 1:17 into the period – the hardest shot in the league this season at 96.75 mph, according to the NHL – past Montembeault.
Then, with a delayed penalty, Byfield finished off a lengthy 6-on-5 sequence by gathering a rebound and shoveling the puck into the top of the net exactly three minutes later.
Montembeault paid dearly for his decision against freezing the puck just over one minute later. The goalie instead tapped the puck along to the side of the net, pushing it directly on to Fiala’s stick near the crease, and Fiala sent it home for a 3-1 lead at 5:22 of the middle frame.
Armia, who played the previous seven seasons with Montreal, chased down Hutson and stripped him of the puck before moving in and slotting a shot past Montembeault on his glove side for a three-goal lead with 8:52 left in the third period.
The game got off to a promising start for Montreal. Jake Evans collected the puck behind his own blue line and skated into the offensive zone before feeding Hutson in the high slot. Hutson deftly slid the puck to Anderson, who one-timed a shot from the left circle that sailed over the glove of Kuemper to open the scoring with 43 seconds remaining in the first period.
Outside of Anderson’s blistering shot, the Canadiens couldn’t solve Kuemper. He stopped Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky’s slot shots in the third period and showed stellar rebound control.
WELCOME BACK
Armia returned to a loud ovation during a first-period video tribute. Armia, Edmundson, Corey Perry and Phillip Danault of the Kings all played for the Canadiens during their run to the 2021 Stanley Cup final.
UP NEXT
The Kings visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday at 4 p.m. PT, their third stop on a six-game trip.