Slumping Canucks fall well short against Kings

Alex Turcotte scored twice and notched an assist as the Los Angeles Kings thumped the struggling Vancouver Canucks 5-1 on Thursday.

Turcotte's first tally of the night came 51 seconds into the game and, before the end of the first period, the 23-year-old winger helped the Kings to a 3-0 lead.

Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala each added a goal and an assist, and Warren Foegele rounded out the scoring for the Kings (25-12-5).

Quinn Hughes scored the lone goal for Vancouver (19-15-10) with a long-range blast during a stretch of four-on-four hockey 14:52 into the second period.

Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced and Thatcher Demko made 16 saves for the Canucks.

Vancouver has lost six of their last seven games and fallen out of the Western Conference's second wild card spot.

Takeaways

Canucks: The team's once-potent power play has dried up. Vancouver was zero-for-five with the man advantage Thursday. The Canucks have not scored a power-play goal in four games, going zero-for-10 across that stretch.

Kings: It was the eighth time in 43 games that L.A. has score five or more goals. Turcotte earned the first multi-goal game of his NHL career on Thursday.

Key moment

A beautiful pass from Turcotte set up L.A.'s second goal in a 24-second span late in the first period. Stationed below the goal line, Turcotte slipped a behind-the-back pass to Kempe, who pulled the puck across the crease and tucked it in past Demko's outstretched skate to give the Kings a 3-0 lead at 9:42 of the first period.

Key stat

The Canucks have allowed five or more goals in 12 of their 44 games this season.

Up next

Canucks: Continue a three-game homestand Saturday when they host the Edmonton Oilers.

Kings: Visit the Kraken in Seattle on Saturday.