Kings Waste Another Strong Goaltending Performance

Anton Forsberg stopped 25 of 27 shots on Tuesday night, a performance that should have been enough to give the Los Angeles Kings a good chance at coming away with a win. Unfortunately for Forsberg, his teammates couldn’t do enough at the other end of the ice.

The Kings fell 2-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center, dropping to 3-6-2 on the season after another frustrating night in which their goaltender didn’t get much help when it mattered most.

Los Angeles was coming off a 6-3 win over the New York Rangers on Monday, but playing on back-to-back nights appeared to catch up with the team as the game wore on. The Kings started well enough, only to see their momentum fade in the second and third periods.

Samuel Helenius gave Los Angeles an early lead just 2:31 into the game, finding the puck in a scramble around the crease and forcing it past Spencer Knight for his first goal of the season.

It was a promising start, but the Kings couldn’t keep their foot on the gas. 

Chicago gradually found its footing, and Roman Kantserov tied the game late in the second period. The rookie forward finished a power-play opportunity by getting to the slot and redirecting Connor Bedard’s setup while dropping to one knee.

That left the Kings needing a response in the third, but instead, they gave up the deciding goal.

Wyatt Kaiser broke the tie at 7:17 of the final period, sneaking down from the blue line before taking a pass from Frank Nazar and beating Forsberg with a wrist shot. Patrick Kane also picked up an assist on the play, moving to 899 career NHL assists.

Forsberg didn’t have much of a chance on the winner, and Chicago held on from there to snap its three-game losing streak.

After the game, Kings forward Adrian Kempe pointed to the team’s inability to maintain its early form as a major problem.

“First period, I think, was probably our best. Kind of got away from us a little bit in the second and third. Wasn’t connecting on the breakouts. Everything felt a little bit off tonight,” Kempe told NHL.com reporter Bruce Miles.

That’s pretty much the story of the night for Los Angeles. The Kings showed they could compete early, but they struggled to sustain that level of play once Chicago started pushing back.

The loss wrapped up a five-game road trip in which Los Angeles went 3-2-0. That’s not a disastrous result, but letting a winnable game slip away certainly stings, especially with the team still trying to climb out of its early-season hole.

Forsberg gave the Kings a chance. They just couldn’t do enough with it.