By DAN SCIFO The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH — The Kings were positioned for their eighth win in the past nine games, but they couldn’t hold off the Pittsburgh Penguins in the third period and then fell in overtime.
Rickard Rakell scored at 1:44 of overtime as the Penguins rallied to beat the Kings, 3-2, on Tuesday night. Rakell deflected Erik Karlsson’s point shot behind Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper for the game-winner.
Rakell also had an assist, Evgeni Malkin and Matt Grzelcyk added goals and Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves for the Penguins, who trailed by a goal with six minutes left before Grzelcyk tied the score.
Adrian Kempe and Alex Turcotte scored, Vladislav Gavrikov contributed two assists and Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for the Kings, who have dropped two of three following their six-game winning streak.
Kempe scored his team-leading 16th goal of the season 33 seconds into the game to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.
Anze Kopitar brought the puck behind the Pittsburgh net before passing to Kempe in front of the crease and he scored on a one-timer.
Kempe has eight goals in his past four games against Pittsburgh. He combined for three goals in two games against the Penguins last season and scored a career-high four goals in a 6-0 win against Pittsburgh on Feb. 11, 2023.
The Penguins tied it 1-1 at 6:22 of the second period after Michael Bunting and Malkin sprung loose on a 2-on-1 break.
Bunting, who was playing in his 300th NHL game, slid a late pass to Malkin and the puck went under Kuemper’s pads and off the far post. Malkin appeared to slightly deflect the puck before it went off Kuemper’s skate and was redirected across the goal line.
The Kings moved back ahead 2-1 at 11:38 of the second period.
Gavrikov cleared the puck from his own slot and it went off the boards near the red line. Turcotte beat the Penguins to the puck and raced down the right side, scoring with a wrist shot from the inside edge of the circle.
After getting denied by Kuemper several times in the third period, Grzelcyk got one past him on a wide-open wrist shot from the left circle to tie it 2-2 with 5:35 left in the third period.
After a stretch when they lost eight of 10 games, the Penguins have won seven of their last 10.
UP NEXT
The Kings continue their seven-game, 15-day road trip against Philadelphia on Thursday at 4:30 p.m. PT.