Kings Survive In OT Behind Brandt Clarke's Heroics

After starting the season 0-4-2, the Los Angeles Kings (2-4-2) have now won two impressive back-to-back road games, defeating the Washington Capitals on Tuesday and, today, winning a thrilling overtime match against the New York Islanders. 

The fear was that the way Los Angeles had been playing to start the season, this five-game road trip starting on Tuesday would potentially end their season because of how horrid they've looked, and traveling on the road against quality teams would drop them to potentially 0-10. 

Forward Artemi Panarin showcased his presence and reminded everyone why he's still an impactful player in the league, finishing with two goals and two points, putting the Kings' offensive engine under his belt. 

After nearly blowing a two-goal lead, the visiting team took care of business in the extra period, with Brandt Clarke scoring the game-winner to give the Kings a 3-2 win at UBS Arena. 

"These are vital points. We don’t want to drop these; we want to capitalize on our chances, Clark said after getting a 3v3 win. "The coaches emphasized capitalizing and crisscrossing, as Juice and I did there. We’ve been working on it. I was happy to capitalize.”

New York outshot and outscored LA on the power play throughout the game, which isn't a surprise given how poor the Kings' shot selection and power play have been to start the season.

Still, the Kings prevailed, with Clarke's clutch overtime goal and goaltender Darcy Kuemper having a great night, finishing with 41 saves on 43 shots, including several big saves in the final period and overtime. 

What the Kings have got in these back-to-back victories is an offense that's looking increasingly comfortable, especially the Panarin-Adrian Kempe-Quinton Byfield line, despite missing tonight's game with injury, and a defense that's looking more organized. 

LA jumped to a 2-0 first-period lead on back-to-back goals from Panarin, putting pressure on New York at home to crawl back. We headed into the second and third periods, where the Islanders each scored one goal to tie the score 2-2. 

It looked like the Kings would blow another lead, as they've been accustomed to in seasons past, especially in overtime, but this time they stayed calm and let Kempe drop the pass to Clarke, who finished the play to end the game. 

Los Angeles will continue its five-game road trip against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday at 12:30 PM.