LOS ANGELES — The Kings entered Thursday night’s clash with former coach Todd McLellan’s Detroit Red Wings as winners of four of their past five games, but their 4-3 shootout loss left them still in search of their first home victory of the campaign.
McLellan’s Motor City crew triumphed at Crypto.com Arena for their third straight win to move to 8-3-0. It was a bizarre game that saw the Kings strike twice with the goalie pulled and appear to win the game in overtime, only to have the goal wiped off the board upon review and ultimately fall in the shootout as all three Kings shooters failed to connect.
The Kings (5-3-4) couldn’t carry over momentum from a road trip during which they collected nine of a possible 10 points. They tied for the NHL lead and set a franchise record with 31 home wins last season, but they are 0-2-2 so far this year.
“Good point [in the standings], but one of two. We’ll take any point we can get, but it’s disappointing that we didn’t get two,” said Kings coach Jim Hiller, who was an assistant under McLellan for parts of two seasons before being promoted.
Alex Laferriere scored shorthanded before Corey Perry deposited two goals 40 seconds apart in the dying embers of regulation. Quinton Byfield and Kevin Fiala had two assists apiece, and Darcy Kuemper stopped 24 shots for the Kings, who have a seven-game points streak (4-0-3). Trevor Moore was a last-second scratch (personal), drawing Jacob Moverare into an 11-7 lineup.
Alex DeBrincat scored a goal and assisted on one of two markers by Marco Kasper. Former King Cam Talbot was resplendent in net with 35 saves.
“Two points would have been ideal, we thought we had it, but those things happen, and it’s a crapshoot once you go into a shootout,” Perry said. “It’s not easy coming back home after being on the road for five, so we battled right ’til the end.”
Mason Raymond scored for Detroit in the shootout and was the only skater to convert.
In overtime, Adrian Kempe nearly tallied and soon after Byfield drew a penalty with 2:01 left in the extra session.
That appeared to set the stage for Anže Kopitar to engineer a Fiala game-winner, but his follow-up bid was nullified upon review for goalie interference and the Wings returned to the ice to kill off the minor.
“I came down the hallway and, truth be told, my stick didn’t make it down the hallway – it was in a few pieces,” Talbot said. “Then I heard Todd [McLellan] say ‘hold on, Talbs.’ I knew that Kev came right through my crease and I kind of spun, so I was hoping for that call, and we got it.”
The final frame began auspiciously for the Kings, who drew a pair of penalties 1:50 apart and sustained pressure during the first of their two consecutive power plays, though they failed to score on either opportunity. The Wings went two-for-three, while the Kings were 0 for 4, though they scored twice six-on-five and once shorthanded.
With 8:21 to play, Byfield found an activated Brandt Clarke at the net front for a redirection, but Talbot was once again up to the task.
With 5:15 remaining, Detroit seemed to drive in the dagger when DeBrincat made a gorgeous diagonal dish to Mason Appleton, whose equally deft pass in tight spoonfed Kasper his second goal of the night and third of the season.
Two minutes later, Perry reignited the game. With Kuemper pulled, the Kings won a draw and generated a rebound that Perry tucked home.
Just 40 ticks elapsed before Byfield sent in a wrister from the slot that Perry deflected past Talbot. Perry now has five goals in his past five games.
“We didn’t win any type of important faceoff down the stretch,” McLellan said. “The first one, they took a shot and both our ‘D’ were playing up and they got underneath us. The second was a rebound that went right off Albert [Johnasson] and went to ‘Q.’”
More than half the game had passed without a goal but the Kings knocked loudly on the door and then broke it down, only to give up an equalizer 43 seconds later and fall behind before the conclusion of the second period.
Kempe’s toe-drag move off the rush gave him prime position and a good shooting angle, but Talbot’s perfectly placed glove ensnared the puck. Byfield hit the post and created a juicy rebound soon after, but the game remained scoreless.
That was until the Kings struck shorthanded after Fiala’s offensive-zone infraction. Cody Ceci and Byfield teamed up on a takeaway that sent Laferriere ahead with speed. He won an open-ice puck battle with Emmitt Finnie and then lofted a fluttering backhand that squeaked through Talbot’s six hole.
The Wings knotted the score with DeBrincat’s third goal in three games, as he rifled in a one-timer from low in the left circle before Fiala’s penalty expired.
Talbot stoned Byfield on a breakaway and soon after Detroit took its first lead of the night. Axel Sandin-Pellikka walked the blue line and flicked a shot that Kasper tipped home with 4:14 showing on the second-period clock for Detroit’s second power-play goal.
“We did have a lot of chances,” Byfield said. “There’s a lot that guys would like to have back, myself, too, Talbs had my number there.”