LOS ANGELES — The Kings closed out their homestand three-for-three and beat an opponent with a points streak of five games or more for the third time this month as they bested the Tampa Bay Lighting, 4-3 in overtime, on Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena.
Vladislav Gavrikov gained steam trailing the play and received a pass from Kempe that sent him on goal at full speed for the game-winning goal a mere 25 seconds into the extra session.
Kempe, Trevor Moore and Mikey Anderson each lit the lamp as well. Cam Talbot turned away 22 shots. The Kings won their third straight game, and on the 30th anniversary of Wayne Gretzky surpassing Gordie Howe’s record for career NHL goals in a 6-3 loss to Vancouver at the Great Western Forum.
Steven Stamkos scored on the power play and then six-on-five to ignite a comeback from 3-1 and force overtime. Brayden Point scored a goal and assisted on Stamkos’ man-advantage marker. Andrei Vasilevskiy cast aside 19 of 23 bids he faced from the Kings.
The Kings entered the third period with a one-goal lead and a 27-0-3 mark in games where they had an edge at the second intermission. They would prevail again, but not without considerable suspense.
Tampa Bay created intrigue and then gave the fans on hand the not-so-welcome gift of bonus hockey behind the efforts of their captain Stamkos.
Moments after he struck both the crossbar and post with a shot, Stamkos tied the game with a one-timer from the left dot off a Nikita Kucherov seam pass with 46 seconds to play.
The Lightning had halved its deficit when Stamkos fired in a diving one-timer from inside the left circle with 4:35 remaining in regulation.
The Kings had gained separation just 1:22 into the third period, when Anderson skated down Darren Raddysh’s errant back pass that drifted from inside the offensive blue line all the way beyond the red line. That flub created a two-on-one with Anderson and scoring-savvy Kevin Fiala, but with towering defenseman Victor Hedman in the middle, Anderson produced a far-side snipe. It was his second goal of the season and his first since Oct. 27.
In the second stanza, the Kings flipped their deficits in scoring chances and high-danger chances from the first period 180 degrees, and earned the period’s only goal.
A bit of deception factored into the goal as the Kings changed two forwards while they had possession in the offensive zone, giving Moore two new linemates (Viktor Arvidsson and Pierre-Luc Dubois) as he recalibrated the attack. A Gavrikov shot attempt was blocked and then recovered by Dubois, who headily sent a rolling puck across to the skate of Moore. He kicked the puck onto his stick for his team-leading 26th goal of the season.
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Two teams separated by one point turned in an even first frame on the scoreboard, with the Kings striking first and the Bolts knotting up the count with a power play goal six seconds before the first intermission.
Tampa Bay’s top-rated power play and the Kings’ No. 1-ranked penalty kill as 13 seconds into Anze Kopitar’s hooking minor, the Lightning scored off a broken play. Kucherov wheeled his way from the top of the right circle to the goal line, where he fanned on a centering pass for Point. Point controlled the loose puck and slipped it past Talbot for an equalizer.
The Kings’ top line put up the game’s first goal behind a stellar start-to-finish effort from Kempe, 7:03 into the match. Kempe’s hit on Matt Dumba dispossessed the defenseman of the puck and keyed an extemporaneous cycle between Kopitar and Quinton Byfield. Kopitar spotted Kempe with position on Dumba at the far post, where he redirected a pass past Vasilevskiy.