The Los Angeles Kings (19-16-11) played host to the Vegas Golden Knights (22-11-12) in a battle between two playoff hopefuls from the Pacific division. After a rough loss to the Dallas Stars on Monday, the Kings were in desperate need of two points as they are start to slip out of the playoff picture in the West.
Unfortunately, two points isn’t easy to come by in the National Hockey League as the Los Angeles was unable to finish the job on home ice and fall to Vegas by a score of 3-2 in overtime.
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The silver lining in all of these heart wrenching defeats is that they continue to walk away with the loser point, which could be seen as both a bad, and a good thing. The Kings now have the second most loser points in the NHL with 11, funnily enough, only Vegas has more with 12.
Kings Fail to Capitalize Early
In perhaps one of the biggest games of the season so far, the Kings needed to get off to good start early in order to compete with a Vegas team that has found their footing lately.
Los Angeles did control the majority of the play in the opening frame, while Vegas looked incredibly sloppy and were unable to get virtually anything going, as they struggled to even enter the Kings zone cleanly.
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Unfortunately, the Golden Knights were able to weather the storm and get out of the first period with a 0-0 tie. The Kings outshot the Knights 9-5 to end the period but just couldn’t beat Akira Schmid.
Golden Knights Get on the Board
After successfully escaping an ugly first period, the Golden Knights looked like an entirely different hockey team in the second period. Clearly, head coach Bruce Cassidy voiced his frustration because it didn’t take long for Vegas control the game.
Just under four minutes into the middle frame, rookie forward Braeden Bowman gave his team the lead with his sixth of the season. After a defensive mishap by Brian Dumoulin, Jack Eichel scooped up the loose puck and found a wide open Bowman who ripped the puck past Darcy Kuemper.
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Both teams had an opportunity on the power play in the latter half of the period, but neither could capitalize. After 40 minutes Vegas was outshooting L.A. 19-17.
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Fiala Finds Twine
Just like Vegas did in the first period, Los Angeles weathered the storm in the second period and were lucky to be down just 1-0 after 40 minutes.
Through the early stages of the third period the Kings began to look desperate as they were pushing hard to even things up. They were able to generate some quality chances but just couldn’t finish.
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That was until Kevin Fiala buried his team-leading 17th goal of the season past Akira Schmid was in the midst of a shutout bid. Fiala earned this one as he was stopped on his initial shot, the puck then came to Alex Turcotte in the slot who fired it on goal which led to a juicy rebound right on the tape of the Kings sniper who wasted no time firing it into the back of the net. Fiala, who was probably the most notable Kings prior to his goal gets rewarded for sticking with the play and crashing the net. Turcotte and Andre Kuzmenko register the assists.
Marner Puts Vegas on Top
After a strong first 10-12 minutes of the final frame, the Kings were tested after Adrian Kempe was sent off for hooking.
Just over 40 seconds into their man advantage, Vegas took the lead right back as Mitch Marner scored his 11th of the year with a blistering wrist shot. At this point it looked like Marner shoved the dagger into the heart of the Kings.
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Clarke Sends the Game to Overtime
When all hope seemed to be lost after yet another Kings third period fumble, the team didn’t give up and continued to fight for the game tying goal.
It came down to the final 90 seconds but Brandt Clarke made the building erupt as he slid home his 5th of the season past Schmid to tie the game at 2-2 which meant extra time was needed.
Stone Wastes No Time
After an electric finish to regulation, the Golden Knights silenced the Kings crowd as they scored just 25 seconds into the overtime period.
In a somewhat broken play that had Kuemper facing the wrong way, Jack Eichel was able to find Mark Stone all alone who was able to put the puck in the wide open cage, giving Vegas the win in a hard fought battle between two divisional foes.
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