LOS ANGELES – The Kings showed resilience on Sunday as they rallied to topple the Buffalo Sabres 3-2 at Staples Center, despite a last-second development that left them without two players.
The Kings scored three straight goals to win consecutive games for the first time this season, having beaten Montreal on Saturday. Mere minutes before the game, winger Viktor Arvidsson and forward Gabe Vilardi were scratched due to their placement on the COVID protocol-related absence list.
Wingers Carl Grundstrom and Alex Iafallo scored goals for the Kings. Center Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist for his second straight multi-point game and his fourth of the season. Goalie Jonathan Quick made 22 saves for the win.
Center Rasmus Asplund and winger Victor Olofsson scored for Buffalo. Backup goalie Dustin Tokarski stopped 31 shots.
After storming the net multiple times in the third period, it was some persistent play from center Phillip Danault that created momentum that led to the game-winning goal. Danault established possession off a dump-in and then kept the opportunity alive. Defenseman Tobias Bjornfot ended up with the puck in the high slot, where he sent a seam pass for Iafallo’s go-ahead goal with 6:19 to play.
Nearing the four-minute mark of the third period, center Blake Lizotte dangled through traffic to test Tokarski, forcing him to make a sprawling save and drawing a hooking penalty on defenseman Colin Miller.
The Kings scored the equalizer off the ensuing faceoff and power play. Kopitar won the draw and, three passes later, rifled a wrist shot from the top of the left circle past Tokarski.
After a first period that was relatively even and largely uneventful, the second period burgeoned with action, seeing an early goal and then two more in a one-minute span.
The Kings applied pressure early in the second. They went to the power play 90 seconds into the frame, after winger Arthur Kaliyev was taken down in front of the net by center Zimgus Girgensons.
Though their power-play buoyed their win with three goals on Saturday, it put them down a goal on Sunday. Seconds after a Dustin Brown deflection from the doorstep went wide, a rolling puck handcuffed Kaliyev and then defenseman Kale Clague at the blue line. That created an inopportune turnover that allowed Asplund to go the other way and score a shorthanded breakaway goal just over three minutes into the stanza.
Buffalo stretched its lead at the 7:39 mark after forward Adrian Kempe’s shot was blocked high in the zone, sending the Kings scrambling the Sabres on a rush that ended up being a 2-0. Olofsson kept the puck and fired it past Quick for his team-leading fifth goal of the season.
But the Kings did not retract, first generating a partial breakaway for Kopitar, who missed the net, and then halving their deficit by taking their skills from hallway soccer games to the ice.
Kopitar kicked the puck to himself before he alertly sent it ahead for Grundstrom, who settled it with his foot as well. Grundstrom danced around a defender at the blue line, drove the net hard for a near-side backhand attempt and then finished with a forehand goal off his rebound to the far side.
The Kings had nearly scored shorthanded after some dogged defense gave them a two-on-one rush, but Kempe’s shot was thwarted by a lunging save from Tokarski.
Not to be outdone, with under five minutes left in the period, Quick made two challenging saves in rapid succession and then a third mere instants later.
Further firing up the Kings was winger Brendan Lemieux, who responded to a check from forward Dylan Cozens by dropping his gloves and then dropping Cozens to the ice. It was Lemieux’s second fighting major in three games played this season. He also rocked Vegas forward Keegan Kolesar with a heavy right-hand blow in the season opener.