Without Drew Doughty, the Kings Lose 2-1 to the Blackhawks

Wyatt Kaiser beat Anton Forsberg through the legs in the third period, and Los Angeles fell to 3-6-2 a night after a win in New York.

The Kings lost 2-1 in Chicago on Tuesday without Drew Doughty or Corey Perry, both late scratches the night after a win in New York. According to NHL.com, the result dropped the Kings to 3-6-2 and moved the Blackhawks to 4-8-0. It also ended Chicago's three-game losing streak, the league's recap said. TheSportsDB's scores feed has the 2-1 final.

Kings coach Peter Laviolette didn't shrug it off. "We had an opportunity to move up in the standings and continue to climb out of the hole that we had at the beginning of the year," he said, according to NHL.com. "We didn't get that done."

The Kings had beaten the Rangers 6-3 in New York on Monday, NHL.com reported. Afterward, Chicago coach Jeff Blashill laid out how he sees a team on the second night. "A lot of times, the team that played the night before has jump early, you're battle-tested, and then you wear out," he said, according to NHL.com.

The Kings did have jump early. Samuel Helenius scored his first goal of the season 2:31 in, jamming home a loose puck in the crease after Jared Wright's shot slid under Spencer Knight's pads, according to NHL.com. They held that lead deep into the second period.

Then Joel Armia was called for tripping at 14:26 and interference at 16:29, the Associated Press reported. Eleven seconds into the second penalty, Connor Bedard carried the puck down the right side and found rookie Roman Kantserov in the slot to tie it on the power play, according to NHL.com.

It was Kantserov's fifth goal, the most among NHL rookies, NHL.com reported. It also came from a power play that's 4 for 39 this season, according to the AP.

The Kings got their own chance when Chicago defenseman Sam Rinzel took a double minor for high-sticking, and the Blackhawks killed all of it, the AP reported.

The winner came 7:17 into the third, and according to NHL.com, Patrick Kane started it from the goal line for his 899th career assist. Frank Nazar slid the puck over, and defenseman Wyatt Kaiser walked in from the left point and beat Anton Forsberg between the legs. Kaiser said it nearly copied his winner in a 2-1 game in Los Angeles on Dec. 4, 2025, NHL.com reported. "Before pros, I'd never scored a five-hole goal in my life, and now it's where I shoot a lot of times," he said, according to NHL.com.

Forsberg and Knight each made 25 saves, according to NHL.com. Adrian Kempe, a Kings forward, said the first period was the Kings' best, that the breakouts stopped connecting after it and that the back-to-back was hard on the body and the mind. "Everything felt a little bit off tonight," he said, according to NHL.com.

According to NHL.com, the loss closed a five-game road trip at 3-2-0. Before the game, Laviolette said the team was working through some bumps and bruises from Monday. Afterward, asked about Doughty and Perry, he didn't give an update, NHL.com reported. The Kings host the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, the AP reported, and the first lineup question is the captain's.

Source: nhl.com, retrieved October 28, 2026. Other sources: abc7.com.