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.
Final from Overtime in Vancouver. #GoKingsGo pic.twitter.com/OtehZdEnYK
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.
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.
LAK Goal - 23 for 55!Byfield ties a career high with his 23rd of the season. Red hot down the stretch. Great dish by Laferriere to set it up. 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.
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.
LAK Goal - What a response!Kempe scores 12 seconds after the Vancouver PPG to tie the game at two. Decent response time. 2-2.
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.
LAK Goal - There's that line again!Doughty's point shot is kicked out by Lankinen and Laferriere buries the rebound. 3-2 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.
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.