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 opened the scoring at 4:45 of the first period.
The Kings appeared to tie the score when Quinton Byfield converted a breakaway at 7:41 of the second period just after killing off a penalty. But Tampa Bay challenged for offside and the goal was overturned because Jacob Moverare entered the zone early.
Hagel gave Tampa Bay some breathing room with his second goal with less than five minutes to play in the third period. Cirelli 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