MONTREAL -- Quebec forward Phillip Danault won his bet Saturday afternoon with the Los Angeles Kings' 5-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens at Staples Center.
Danault, who joined the Kings as an uncompensated free agent last summer, played his first game against his former team. He finished the game with an assist.
Viktor Arvidsson, Arthur Kaliyev, Rasmus Kupari and Alex Iafollo all assisted on two goals for the Kings (2-5-1), who had not enjoyed a win since their opening game on Oct. 6. All but Arvidsson rattled the ropes on the power play.
Josh Anderson and Ben Chiarot battled for the Canadiens (2-7-0), who were trying to win their second straight for the first time this campaign.
It was the seventh consecutive start for Jake Allen, the team's number one goalie in the absence of Carey Price. Allen had a tougher game than the last one and finished with 34 saves.
His counterpart, Cal Petersen, was not overly challenged by the Tricolore en route to victory. He finished the game with 26 saves.
As is often the case with afternoon games -- the opening face-off was at 1:00 p.m. local time -- it took a while for the two teams to get going.
Canadiens forward Christian Dvorak took advantage of the Kings' lack of momentum to set the table for the first goal of the game late in the first period.
Dvorak picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone before driving into enemy territory and passing the disc to a lone Anderson, who beat Petersen with a low wrist shot from the stick side with 1:38 to play in the first period.
However, the Kings tied the game early in the second period, courtesy of Arvidsson, following a similar play that led to Anderson's goal.
Kaliyev then put the home team ahead 2-1 on the power play at 12:19 with a powerful wrist shot that sailed over Allen's glove.
At that point, the Habs could still hope to come from behind in the third period. Instead, they flattened out in the second period.
Kupari also used his wrist shot to beat the Tricolore goalie over the glove on the power play at 1:53 of the final period. Iafallo then pounced on a generous throwback from Allen in the slot to make it 4-1 less than four minutes later, before sealing the game late in the period.
The game was out of reach for the Habs at that point, but that didn't stop Chiarot from flashing the red light behind Petersen's net for good measure with 2:20 to play.
Head coach Dominique Ducharme made no changes to his lineup from Thursday night's 4-0 win over the Sharks.
The Kings were missing star defenseman Drew Doughty after he suffered a serious knee injury earlier this month.
The Canadiens will complete their four-game road trip in the American West when they visit the Ducks in Anaheim on Sunday afternoon.
Goalie Samuel Montembeault could be called upon to defend the cage against the Ducks, as it will be the second game in 24 hours for the Montrealers.
--This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Oct. 30, 2021.
