CALGARY, Alberta — The Kings’ three-game trek through Western Canada is off to a rough start.
Yegor Sharangovich scored the go-ahead goal at 12:09 of the third period as the Calgary Flames topped the Kings, 4-2, on Tuesday night for their fourth straight win.
Andrew Mangiapane, Blake Coleman and Mikael Backlund (empty net) also scored for Calgary, while Chris Tanev chipped in a pair of assists. The Flames remain five points back of Nashville for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Jacob Markstrom had 21 stops and an assist.
Phillip Danault and Kevin Fiala provided the offense for the Kings, who have dropped the first two games of their road trip. The Kings are tied in points with Nashville, but they hold down the Western Conference’s first wild-card spot at the moment because they have two games in hand.
Making his first start in four games, former Flame Cam Talbot had 33 saves for the Kings.
On the go-ahead score, Sharangovich took a pass from Dryden Hunt, strode over the Kings’ blue line and ripped a shot inside the goalpost on Talbot’s glove side.
Scoreless through the first half of the game, the Kings opened the scoring at 12:08 of the second period when Danault picked the top corner with a slap shot from 40 feet out.
The lead was short-lived, however, with Calgary responding 48 seconds later.
Noah Hanifin’s long pass found Mangiapane behind the Kings’ defense and on the breakaway, he fooled Talbot with a backhand-to-forehand deke that left him with an empty net to slam his 12th goal of the season into.
Continuing the sudden rapid-fire scoring barrage, 56 seconds after that, the Flames took their first lead with Coleman knocking in a Jonathan Huberdeau rebound at 13:52.
Fiala evened the score with 1:06 remaining in the middle frame, backhanding in a rebound after Markstrom could not control Anze Kopitar’s initial shot.
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With the Kings playing their second game in as many nights, Calgary started strong. The Flames outshot the Kings 10-3 in the opening 20 minutes, but the game remained scoreless thanks to a Kings penalty kill that bent, but didn’t break.
Mangiapane played in career game No. 400. Drafted by Calgary in the sixth round (166th overall) of the 2015 draft, he’s one of only 13 active players drafted in the sixth round who has reached 400 games. He’s also the first from the sixth round of his draft class to reach that mark.
With his assist on Mangiapane’s goal, Markstrom has five assists on the season. No other NHL goalie has more than two.
KEMPE OUT
The Kings were without right-winger Adrian Kempe, who returned to Los Angeles for further examination after getting injured during Monday’s loss in Edmonton. In adjusting his lines, Coach Jim Hiller moved Pierre-Luc Dubois and Quinton Byfield up to the top line to flank Kopitar, while rookie left winger Alex Laferriere was dropped down to the third line.
UP NEXT
The Kings finish their three-game road trip at Vancouver on Thursday at 7 p.m.
More to come on this story.