LOS ANGELES — The Kings hoped to recapture their road magic on home ice but failed to do so on Tuesday night, falling to the Vancouver Canucks, 2-1, at Crypto.com Arena in overtime just five days after they upended the Western Conference-leading Canucks, 5-1, north of the border.
Trevor Moore scored a goal for the Kings in regulation. Cam Talbot made 29 saves.
Elias Pettersson scored for Vancouver in regulation. Quinn Hughes assisted on his goal as well as J.T. Miller’s overtime winner. Former Junior King Thatcher Demko turned away 23 shots.
Overtime lasted 96 seconds as the Canucks first drew a penalty against Kevin Fiala and then cashed in on the delayed penalty. Miller dished the puck to Brock Boeser low, who sent it back to Miller, who glided forward to rip a slap shot from just above the faceoff dot for his team-leading 31st goal of the season.
Despite the loss, the Kings moved into a tie with Vegas for third place in the Pacific Division.
Just 2:05 into the third period, a two-on-one rush made it appear as though Alex Turcotte had Demko dead to rights, but the San Diego native lunged across his crease and stoned him with a glove save. Three opportunities, including a wide-open net for Trevor Lewis, resulted in shot attempts that missed the net on the Kings’ next offensive foray.
The Kings’ close calls gave way to a second straight period with a shot disadvantage and some pressure on Talbot, including a late wraparound attempt by Pettersson.
Vancouver had tilted the ice in the second period, largely by extending its dominance in the faceoff circle, and found an equalizer with 3:24 to play.
Pettersson received the puck above the right circle, weaving his way toward the dot and then into the slot, deking Drew Doughty dirtily in the process. He secured his third straight 30-goal campaign and moved to within one point of becoming the second-fastest player in Canucks franchise history to 400 points (Pavel Bure was the fastest).
The setback in the period could have been greater if not for the Kings’ second-ranked penalty kill and the resurgent Talbot. He made a brilliant save on a deflection attempt by Nils Hoglander that was part of essentially consecutive penalty kills after Quinton Byfield took one penalty and then another to thwart an odd-man rush 33 seconds after exiting the penalty box.
In all, Talbot answered the bell 15 times in the period, withstanding big swings from the likes of Pettersson and Brock Boeser, who entered the game with 15 goals and 20 points in 17 career games against the Kings.
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The lone power play, the only goal and a 10-5 shot advantage all belonged to the Kings in the opening 20 minutes.
They got the scoring going 10:54 into the match. An errant lateral pass made Filip Hronek retreat all the way below his own goal line, which was blood in the water for the shark-like forecheck of Moore. He barrelled in to create pressure and separate Hronek from the puck. Hronek recovered the puck briefly, only to be stripped by Phillip Danault, who found Moore for his team-leading 24th goal of 2023-24. Moore has been reinvigorated of late, compiling three goals and six points in his past five games.
More to come on this story.