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Adrian Kempe scores 2 goals as Kings beat Capitals for 1st win

Artemi Panarin, Erik Gustafsson and Scott Laughton also score and Darcy Kuemper makes 30 saves as the Kings, who had opened the season with six straight losses, rally from an early deficit for a 5-2 road win

The Kings’ Adrian Kempe celebrates after scoring a goal during the third period of their 5-2 comeback win against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night in Washington, D.C. Kempe scored two goals in the team’s first win of the season. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
The Kings’ Adrian Kempe celebrates after scoring a goal during the third period of their 5-2 comeback win against the Washington Capitals on Tuesday night in Washington, D.C. Kempe scored two goals in the team’s first win of the season. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The Kings’ season-opening drought is over.

Adrian Kempe scored twice and the Kings got their first win of the season, rallying from an early deficit to beat the Washington Capitals, 5-2, on Tuesday night.

Artemi Panarin, Erik Gustafsson and Scott Laughton also scored for the Kings (1-4-2), and former Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves.

Ryan Leonard and Cole Hutson scored for the Capitals, who took a 2-0 lead in the first period but were held scoreless for the final 41:25. Washington’s Logan Thompson stopped 21 shots.

The Kings, who came in having scored just four goals over their previous four games and 12 goals through six games, lost second-line center Quinton Byfield to an upper-body injury in the first period. He played just 2:44.

Hutson put the Capitals ahead 2-0 on the power play with 1:25 left in the first, but Kempe found the net less than a minute later and Panarin scored two seconds before the intermission.

Gustafsson put the Kings ahead at 7:28 of the third on the power play. Kempe scored his second goal midway through the third, and Laughton added an empty-netter that gave the Kings their highest-scoring game of the season.

Absent the injured Pierre Luc-Dubois and Justin Sourdif down the middle of their forward ranks, the Capitals were unable to beat Kuemper, who played for Washington from 2022-24.

More to come on this story.

UP NEXT

The Kings play at the New York Islanders on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. PT.

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