LOS ANGELES w— The Kings white-knuckled their way through regulation, taking the Calgary Flames to overtime and losing 2-1, at Crypto.com Arena on Saturday night.
Adrian Kempe scored a rare first-period goal for the Kings, who couldn’t muster another the rest of the way. Darcy Kuemper made 36 of 38 saves. Phillip Danault missed the match with an illness and Andrei Kuzmenko endured his fifth healthy scratch of the season.
Blake Coleman tallied shorthanded and Morgan Frost won it in overtime. Former Junior King Dustin Wolf came up with 20 of 21 stops for Calgary.
The Kings extended their points streak to four games but lost for the eighth time in their past dozen decisions, while Calgary won for the eighth time in its last 12 outings.
In two games, the Kings had to kill 11 penalties — they went 4-for-4 on Saturday after giving up three power-play goals in Seattle — and all of them were stick infractions. That compounded the ineffectiveness of their offense, which scored three goals in two OT affairs.
“Obviously, the puck’s not going in,” defenseman Brian Dumoulin said. “Obviously, we could still create more and support each other more. Obviously, that’s one of the big ones. Obviously, if our power play’s clicking a little bit more, too, and, obviously, if we can get some more opportunities than them … maybe have more power plays than PKs for a change.”
The Kings appeared to score 33 seconds into overtime when Kempe found Anže Kopitar for a redirection goal off his skate. But the official review quickly determined that Kopitar kicked the puck home, disallowing the would-be winner.
“I wasn’t sure at first, but then I saw the replay and I figured it wouldn’t count,” Kopitar said. “It’s unfortunate. I honestly didn’t try to kick it, but it was just the momentum and the way my foot was positioned and moving. It looked like a kick, and it was a pretty clear call.”
Thirty-three seconds after that, it was the Flames celebrating instead. Frost, who was dangerous often Saturday, started a three-on-one break by accosting Brandt Clarke along the boards and then finished it by roofing the puck from in tight.
“I just saw an opportunity, I felt like (Clarke) was stuck on the wall, so I just took off,” Frost said. “The plan is always ‘get the puck to [Jonathan] Huberdeau and get open,’ so that’s what I was thinking there, to just give it to him and go to the net.”
A 1-1 stalemate from the second intermission persisted after 60 minutes, sending the Kings beyond the allotted time for the 14th time in 31 games this season. A whopping 25 of those 31 games have been decided by one goal or a goal plus an empty-netter.
The second period was brutal for the Kings, who were out-shot, 17 -3.
After giving up 10 unanswered shots to start the stanza, the Kings not only hit the net but drew a penalty. That, however, was the start of trouble for the hosts, who have gone 4-for-44 on the power play to sink like a stone to 32nd of 32 franchises.
Kevin Fiala overhandled the puck, dragging it across the top of the offensive zone while being hounded by a pair of penalty killers. Coleman pounced on his blind pass toward the blue line and hit the gas to score on a breakaway, tying the game at the 6:41 mark.
“We’ve got to find a way to score more goals, obviously starting with the power play. We have to figure something out, find something in order to jumpstart the offense and score more goals,” Kopitar said.
Kuemper kept the Kings in the tilt with a cornucopia of stops, highlighted by his jaw-dropping kick save on Matt Coronato that was equal parts intelligence and athleticism. A snazzy exchange between Rasmus Andersson and Frost set up a seam pass for Coronato, who was all alone at the netfront. Kuemper’s flawless tracking and fast-switch kick of his left pad denied Coronato.
“If it wasn’t for Darcy, obviously, the game would have been over,” said Kings coach Jim Hiller, who added that the first 40 minutes were “poor” from the Kings.
In the first period, the Kings were out-shot but not outscored or outmuscled. Kempe cashed in 11:10 into the contest and big Samuel Helenius dropped the gloves with even bigger Adam Klapka early in the game. Yet Helenius’ five penalty minutes were nearly twice his 2:34 time on ice Saturday.
Kempe’s 11th goal tied him with Fiala for the team lead. After Joel Edmundson skyhooked the puck out of the zone, Kempe touched it onto Alex Laferriere. From the left-wing wall, Kempe vanished behind the Calgary defense, reappearing in the right circle to receive a pass from Laferriere for a one-timer that had a smoke trail.
Next up, the Kings hit the road, where their points percentage is .306 higher than at home, for three games, beginning in Dallas against the Stars on Monday.