By ERIK ERLENDSSON The Associated Press
TAMPA, Fla. — A two-game visit to the sunshine state didn’t brighten the outlook for the Kings’ goal-starved offense.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 28 shots, Brandon Hagel had two goals and an assist and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Kings, 3-0, on Thursday night, handing the visitors their second straight shutout loss and their fourth consecutive defeat overall.
Anthony Cirelli scored his fourth short-handed goal of the season for the Lightning. The shutout was Vasilevskiy’s second this season and 37th of his career.
David Rittich finished with 30 saves for the Kings, who have lost eight of their past 10 games (2-7-1), scoring just 15 goals over that extended stretch and just 19 goals in their past 12 games.
Florida Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 29 shots in handing the Kings a 3-0 loss on Wednesday night.
Thursday’s game was the fourth stop of a five-game trip, with the Kings (26-17-6, 58 points) set to play at Carolina (32-16-4, 68 points) on Saturday night.
Hagel raced past defenseman Jordan Spence with an inside move and beat Rittich for the game’s first goal 4:45 into the opening period. Vasilevskiy was credited with the secondary assist.
Neither team had a power play in the first period as Tampa Bay held an 11-8 advantage in shots.
The Kings appeared to pull even right as the game’s first power play ended when Jacob Moverare popped out of the penalty box and fed Quinton Byfield for a breakaway goal at 7:44 of the second.
However, the Lightning successfully challenged that Moverare was offside and the goal was waved off.
Rittich kept the score 1-0 at 10:31 of the second with a diving glove save on Brayden Point at the near post on a 3-on-2 rush.
In the third, Vasilevskiy made a key save on Anze Kopitar’s breakaway four minutes in, and Hagel gave Tampa Bay some breathing room with less than five minutes left after Rittich stopped Nikita Kucherov’s breakaway.
With an assist from Hagel, Cirelli tapped added an empty-net goal with 1:17 left.
After playing 23:51 in his season debut on Wednesday night, Kings defenseman Drew Doughty was back in the lineup on Thursday, logging nearly 28 minutes on the ice.
The Kings, so strong at home this season, fell to 11-14-2 on the road.
Tampa defenseman Victor Hedman, who on Thursday was named captain for Team Sweden for the Four Nations Face-off, became the 10th Swedish-born player to appear in 1,100 career regular-season games. Vasilevskiy recorded his 21st career assist.
UP NEXT
Kings at Carolina, Saturday, 4 p.m. PT