Kings waste no time throttling New York Rangers

NEW YORK — Alex Turcotte and Warren Foegele scored in the first period, and the Kings beat the New York Rangers 5-1 on Saturday for their seventh win in eight games.

Quinton Byfield, Adrian Kempe and Phillip Danault also scored as the Kings handed the Rangers their ninth loss in 12 games. Darcy Kuemper made 31 saves in the win to improve to 7-2-3.

Captain Anze Kopitar had two assists. The 37-year-old center, now in his 19th season, leads the Kings with 34 points, including eight goals.

Turcotte opened the scoring at 7:05, whipping the puck past Shesterkin to finish a 2-on-1 break with Kempe. Foegele made it 2-0 at 15:06 of the first.

“It was a horrendous first period,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said after the Rangers lost for the ninth time in their last 12 games. ”It’s frustrating. To start a game like that in our building is bad … You’re not going to win games if you start like that.”

The Kings (18-9-3) chased Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the second period after he had allowed five even-strength goals on 21 shots. Byfield scored at 2:46 of the second, followed by Kempe at 4:40 and Danault at 5:04.

Shesterkin was pulled after Danault’s goal in favor of former Kings goaltending star Jonathan Quick, who made 13 saves in relief. Shesterkin fell to 10-11-1 this season.

Shesterkin, who agreed to a record eight-year, $92 million contract extension earlier this month, won the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best goaltender in 2021-22 when he was 36-13-4 with a 2.07 goals against average. He won 37 games in 2022-23 and 36 last season as the Rangers finished with the NHL’s best record.

Filip Chytil scored his sixth goal for New York, which fell to 7-8-1 at home after losing only 11 times in 41 games last season at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers (15-13-1) were without defenseman K’Andre Miller, who suffered an upper-body injury during Thursday’s win at Buffalo. Miller was replaced by Connor Mackey.

The Kings, now 7-2-3 against Eastern Conference opponents, have allowed two goals or less in seven of their last eight games.

Next up is a game Tuesday in Pittsburgh, the fourth in the Kings’ second seven-game road trip of the season. They opened the campaign 3-2-2 away from home because of renovations being done at Crypto.com Arena.

The Kings don’t play at home again until hosting the Edmonton Oilers, their playoff nemeses the past three years, on Dec. 28.