MONTREAL — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping the road-weary Kings snap a three-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
The Kings improved to 2-1-2 on their season-opening, seven-game road trip, which was necessitated by renovations at Crypto.com Arena.
Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.
Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.
The Kings bounced back after allowing a combined 14 goals against Ottawa and Toronto in their last two outings.
Laferriere deflected a point shot from Jordan Spencer 1:37 into the second period for his third goal of the season. Alex Turcotte assisted on the goal. Turcotte’s father, Alfie, played 85 games with the Canadiens between 1983 and 1986.
The Kings beat the Canadiens for the seventh consecutive time, including four straight in Montreal.
DOWN A BLUE-LINER
The Canadiens played with five defensemen for 40 minutes after Mike Matheson exited the game, with Lane Hutson logging 30:05 of ice time.
UP NEXT
The Kings play at the Ducks on Sunday at 5 p.m.
