LOS ANGELES — Even on a Wednesday night when they were largely listless for more than 40 minutes, the Kings turned it up at home in the third period once again, turning a two-goal deficit into a consolation point against the Vancouver Canucks in a 3-2 overtime loss at Crypto.com Arena.
The Kings avoided what would have been just their second regulation loss in their past 17 games on home ice. Vancouver snapped its two-game winless streak and climbed back into the playoff picture.
Trailing 2-0 heading into the closing stanza, the Kings got a flashy goal from Adrian Kempe and a blue-collar one from Warren Foegele to force overtime. Top defenseman Drew Doughty was a late scratch due to a lower-body injury, drawing Kyle Burroughs into the lineup. David Rittich made 14 saves and lost for the fifth time in his past six starts.
Nils Höglander got the ball rolling for Vancouver before Conor Garland scored once in regulation and again in OT to decide the match. Kevin Lankinen stopped 24 shots.
In overtime, Drew O’Connor tripped up Kevin Fiala, giving the Kings their second pivotal power play after they failed to cash in one late in regulation. They were again unable to convert, setting the stage for Garland’s second goal with 34 seconds left in the bonus session. Garland snagged a puck near the left-wing wall and attacked Brandt Clarke directly before rifling in a shot from the faceoff dot.
With 5:59 to play, there was a pivotal sequence that first saw the Kings tie the score off of Foegele’s redirection of Jordan Spence’s shot, and then earn a power play as a result of Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet’s unsuccessful challenge for goalie interference. After Foegele’s 16th goal of the season stood, the power play was fruitless, though Spence did swipe Filip Chytil’s shorthanded bid off the goal line to avert calamity.
With 10:44 remaining in regulation, Kempe received the puck near the red line and propelled forward to deliver a far-side snipe that Lankinen had little chance of stopping. It was the newlywed Kempe’s team-leading 26th goal of the season.
The middle frame brought more of the same for the Kings, who were again tepid offensively and once more gave up the period’s only goal, a power-play marker at 13:07.
Vancouver forced a defenseman, Mikey Anderson, and a forward, Foegele, to switch positions, and then outnumbered the Kings below the goal line. The result was Chytil’s feed to Garland, who popped the puck in easily from below the hash marks just before taking a hit from Anderson.
The first period seemed to call for cold medicine, as it was defined by grogginess and congestion. The two teams barely broke double digits in combined shots on goal, but the Canucks got the better of both the shot count and the score.
As the midpoint of the period approached, Vancouver got on the board when former King Derek Forbort set up Höglander’s goal to open the scoring. Joel Edmundson, who was also on for Vancouver’s second goal, had wiped out in the slot. That left Spence alone against Höglander and Kiefer Sherwood, who sprang open at the back post. Höglander kept the puck and placed it so precisely to the far side that Rittich barely reacted to his shot.
More to come on this story.