Anze Kopitar scored two of Los Angeles' four first-period goals as the Kings rolled to a 5-0 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday to boost their playoff hopes.

Cam Talbot notched his third shutout of the season by stopping all 28 shots he faced from a Chicago team that had scored seven goals in each of its previous two games, both victories.

Pierre-Luc Dubois, Alex Laferriere and Jordan Spence each contributed a goal and an assist to help the Kings move two points clear of the Vegas Golden Knights for third place in the Pacific Divison.

The Kings dominated the first two periods and wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, as Dubois rocketed a rebound past Chicago goaltender Arvid Soderblom on a power play just 3:10 in.

Laferriere redirected a shot from teammate Matt Roy into the net a mere 2:23 later for a 2-0 lead, and Kopitar added his 19th and 20th goals of the season to cause the Blackhawks to pull Soderblom for Petr Mrazek after a little over 14 minutes.

Spence made it 5-0 with his first goal of 2023-24, a shot that trickled by a screened Mrazek 2:31 into the second period.

Soderblom stopped just 10 of 14 shots before being removed, while Mrazek finished with 22 saves.

Toffoli, Brossoit lead Jets' blowout of Ducks

The Winnipeg Jets, meanwhile, created a three-way tie atop the Central Division by cruising to a 6-0 rout of the floundering Anaheim Ducks.

Tyler Toffoli scored two goals to back a 21-save shutout for Laurent Brossoit as Winnipeg joined Colorado and Dallas in first place in the Central. All three teams have 89 points, though the Jets hold a game in hand on the Avalanche and two on the Stars.

Dylan DeMelo added a goal and an assist and Josh Morrissey recorded three assists as the Jets bounced back from Wednesday's 4-2 loss to the Nashville Predators.

The Ducks were shut out for a second straight game and now have lost five straight, all in regulation.

Kyle Connor got the Jets on the board with 3:40 left in the first period and Nate Schmidt extended the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal in the second.

Winnipeg then put the game out of reach with a four-goal third, with DeMelo starting the barrage 4:59 into the period.

Toffoli, playing his third game since being acquired by the Jets from the New Jersey Devils at last week's trade deadline, then netted his first two goals with his new team within a span of less than three minutes to increase the margin to 5-0.

Mason Appleton closed out the scoring with a power-play goal with 5.5 seconds left.

John Gibson made 32 saves for Anaheim, which was outshot by a 38-21 margin.

Charlie Coyle had a goal and an assist to back 20 saves from Jeremy Swayman as the Boston Bruins remained hot with Monday's 4-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets in a clash of division leaders.

Jake DeBrusk scored short-handed in the third period to help Boston to a fifth consecutive victory, while Brad Marchand and Jakub Lauko added goals for the Atlantic leaders. 

The Central-leading Jets lost for just the second time in 12 games and had a streak of 34 straight games allowing three goals or fewer halted. The run was one short of an NHL record in a single season during the expansion era, as the Minnesota Wild did so in 35 in a row from Jan.-April 2005.

After Lauko and Winnipeg's Vladislav Namestnikov traded early goals, Coyle put the Bruins back ahead by redirecting Hampus Lindholm's shot past Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck with 1:34 left in the first period. 

DeBrusk fired a loose puck by Hellebuyck with the Jets on a power play to increase the lead to 3-1 with 5:25 left to play, and Marchand sealed the win with an empty-net goal inside the final minute.

Hellebuyck stopped 17 of 20 shots for Winnipeg.

Devils' Toffoli has hat trick, overtime winner against Golden Knights

Tyler Toffoli scored with 2:25 left in overtime to cap his second hat trick of the season and give the New Jersey Devils a thrilling 6-5 comeback win over the Vegas Golden Knights.

New Jersey trailed 5-3 late in the second period before getting two unanswered goals from Toffoli and another from Curtis Lazar to halt the defending Stanley Cup champions' three-game winning streak.

Lazar also scored in the first period and Nico Hischier added a goal to help the Devils avoid a fourth loss in five games.

Jonathan Marchessault had two goals and an assist for Vegas, which also received a goal and two assists from Nicolas Roy and one goal and one assist from Chandler Stephenson.

Toffoli started New Jersey's rally by ripping a shot past Knights goaltender Logan Thompson with 15.8 seconds left in the second period. Lazar's second of the night created a 5-5 tie midway through the third, and Toffoli completed his three-goal outing by converting a feed from Luke Hughes with the Devils on a 3-on-2 rush in overtime.

Hischier and Lazar each struck in the first period after Pavel Dorofeyev gave Vegas a 1-0 lead 6:12 in. Toffoli extended the margin to 3-1 with just 1:37 elapsed in the second, but the Knights scored four times before the end of the period to move ahead.

Marchessault tied the game at 3-3 with a pair of goals 2:21 apart, and Stephenson scored just 48 seconds after Marchessault's second before Roy gave Vegas a 5-3 edge in the final minute of the period.

Thompson finished with 32 saves while Vitek Vanecek stopped 27 shots for the Devils. 

Canucks' Demko blanks Blackhawks for fifth shutout

Thatcher Demko turned aside 31 shots to record his fifth shutout of the season and lead the red-hot Vancouver Canucks to a 2-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

The All-Star goaltender tied Arizona's Connor Ingram and Pittsburgh's Tristan Jarry for the NHL's lead in shutouts while sparking Vancouver to its third straight win. The Pacific Division-leading Canucks are now 8-0-1 over a nine-game point streak.

Vancouver got all its scoring in the opening period, as Pius Suter knocked in a feed from Andrei Kuzmenko 1:47 in and Quinn Hughes blasted a shot over the shoulder of Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek less than five minutes later. Kuzmenko was credited with an assist on that goal as well. 

Demko stopped 10 shots in the second period and 12 more in the third to keep the Canucks' lead intact.

The Blackhawks, who had won two of their last three games, were shut out for the fifth time this season. Mrazek finished with 27 saves. 

The high-scoring New Jersey Devils have added another piece to help light the lamp in 2023-24.

The Calgary Flames have traded winger Tyler Toffoli to the Devils for forward Yegor Sharangovich and a third-round pick in Wednesday’s draft.

The deal was announced about a week after media reports surfaced that Toffoli, who is entering the final year of his contract, would not re-sign with Calgary.

Toffoli just completed the best season of his career and was the Flames’ leading scorer with 73 points (34 goals, 39 assists).

At 31-years-old, Toffoli joins a young core of Nico Hischier, Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt that made New Jersey a top-five scoring offense last season.

Toffoli has 466 career points (227 goals, 239 assists) in 733 games with the Flames, Montreal Canadiens, Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings.

Earlier Tuesday, the Devils traded backup goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood to the San Jose Sharks for a sixth-round pick.

The Flames add Sharangovich, a 25-year-old forward, and the No. 80 overall selection in this year’s draft.

A Belarus native, Sharangovich was drafted in the fifth round in 2018 and features a two-way game. After a 46-point season in 2021-22, his offensive production dipped to 30 points last season, but he contributed heavily on the Devils’ penalty kill units.