Staples Center was rocking on Tuesday night as the St. Louis Blues came to town for the first time since being swept by the Kings in the 2012 playoffs. The first period alone resulted in three fights and 40 penalty minutes, including a scrap between Kyle Clifford and Roman Polak. At around the 0:37 mark of the video below, you can see Clifford sending Dustin Penner back to the Kings bench so he could take on Polak. They each got a couple of good punches in before Clifford landed a nasty uppercut, knocking Polak to the ground and ending the fight.
The Blues went on to take a 4-2 lead at the end of the second period, but the Kings came back in the third to score four unanswered goals and win 6-4. Jaroslav Halak and Jonathan Bernier started the game in net for their teams, but were both eventually pulled and replaced by Brian Elliott and Jonathan Quick. Jeff Carter scored the game-winning goal for L.A., just one night after recording his fifth career hat trick in Monday’s matchup against the Nashville Predators.
