The Los Angeles Kings (35-26-20) come up short against the Vancouver Canucks (25-48-8) after giving everything they had on the road; the home team capitalizes in overtime to stun the Kings’ hopes of capturing home-ice advantage in the postseason.
LA was fighting all night in this game from start to finish, trying to bury the Canucks, who had nothing to play for, but defensive lapses, struggles to win key faceoffs, and poor defensive zone coverage cost the Kings a 4-3 overtime loss.
The game began with Vancouver taking an early advantage in the first period. At the 10:39 mark, the Canucks converted on the left point, beating Darcy Kuemper to give the Canucks the 1-0 lead.
Advertisement
Vancouver got away with a moving screen up high, but the call would stand; Canucks up 1-0.
It was just the second time in the last five games that LA has given up a goal in the first period. In the midst of the King’s five-game winning streak, defense has been its greatest strength, but they got off to a slow start.
The Kings looked too comfortable out there after officially clinching a playoff spot on Monday; they didn’t look as motivated to get off to a good start, which allowed Vancouver to get on the board quickly.
At one point, the Kings went 15 minutes without even generating a shot on goal. And that shot on goal that ended LA’s drought was a goal in transition with Alex Laferriere leading the 2-on-2 rush to find Quinton Byfield for the goal, tying the scoreboard 1-1.
Byfield continues his red-hot scoring down the stretch of the final games of the season, heading into the playoffs. The first period was a pretty even match, despite LA’s slow start. The Kings did a good job tying the game after 20 minutes.
Advertisement
We entered the second period, where the offense would go red-hot for the Kings. After the Canucks converted on their power play goal to retake the lead 2-1 off a face-off win, it looked like the Kings were on upset alert.
But, in a span of nearly a minute and a half, Los Angeles scored two goals to take their first lead of the game, 3-2. Nearly 12 seconds after Vancouver scored, Adrian Kempe scored the goal to tie the game at two.
Kempe did a good job drawing Vancouver’s defenders away from him after passing the puck to Anze Kopitar. Kempe got the puck back alone in the slot and beat Vancouver’s goaltender to even up the game.
Over a minute later, Drew Doughty’s point shot was kicked in by Alex Laferriere on the rebound shot, giving LA the 3-2 advantage. After the Canucks took a one-goal lead, they took a brief defensive break, which led to those two quick goals by the Kings.
Credit to Los Angeles for quickly amping it up after going down by one goal; they found a way to take a one-goal lead in a span of a minute.
Advertisement
LA’s biggest problem, though, was its defense and faceoff wins. Vancouver was winning key faceoffs that led to goals, and the Kings’ zone defense was terrible in the second period.
After a broken stick, LA lost track of the puck and the defender, allowing Vancouver to take advantage and score an easy shot in the slot, tying the score at 3-3. The Kings were not engaged at all in this game, especially defensively; there were too many lapses and errors that we haven’t seen in a while, certainly not in the winning streak.
Both teams were careless, turning the puck over in the second period, and had several chances to score on fast-break transitions, but couldn’t capitalize. Just like the first period, the second ended with the game tied 3-3.
LA had 15 shots in the second period after a measly four in the opening period, scoring two goals, but the defense and faceoffs struggled, giving up two goals and keeping Vancouver in the game.
Advertisement
We entered the third period, and both teams were sluggish offensively, combining for four shots in the first seven minutes of the final frame. It was one of the quieter periods that the Kings have played this season; nothing was going their way offensively.
Whichever team didn’t make any mistakes and cleaned up their errors on offense was going to steal this game in the final minutes of regulation. The Canucks had nothing to lose here, while the Kings need this game.
It would stay that way, forcing the game into overtime. It was the first time LA had gone to extra periods in over a week.
In extra periods, Vancouver would call the game with under two minutes left, with nice puck movement to get an open look and score the game-winner, upsetting the Kings.
Advertisement
Key Takeaways
Big missed opportunity for the Kings in tonight’s loss to the Canucks. Despite earning a point and tying Anaheim for the three seed, the Kings could have earned two points; instead, they remained with 90 points. If LA earned two points today, they would’ve been in a clear position to gain home-ice advantage in the first round after Anaheim lost on Tuesday.
Now, it looks like the Kings’ first-round matchup will be against the Colorado Avalanche if Edmonton and Anaheim win their final game, leaving LA at the second wild-card spot.
Quinton Byfield and Alex Laferriere both had a very good night on offense tonight, each recording one goal, one assist, and two points.
Advertisement
Darcy Kuemper got his first start under the crease for the first time since April 4th. Kuemper was solid, finishing with 21 saves on 25 shots and making a couple of huge saves in the final period, but once again couldn’t come up clutch when the game went to overtime.
The Kings will have everything to play for in their last game of the season on Thursday against the Calgary Flames at 6:00 PM PT.
Image
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
Read the full article here
