The Los Angeles Kings couldn't keep their winning streak alive, dropping Thursday night's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime 4-3.
The Los Angeles Kings couldn't keep their winning streak alive, dropping Thursday night's game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in overtime 4-3.
It was a slow start for the Kings who went down 1-0 early courtesy of a Sidney Crosby wraparound goal.
Crosby picked up a puck off to the right side of the net and beat Pheonix Copley around to the other side and tucked it home.
The Kings were woken up a few minutes later by a monster hit from Andreas Englund, who caught Radim Zohorna trying to cut to the middle of the ice just inside of the Kings zone.
The physicality went up a notch for both teams after the hit and boiled over in a post-whistle scrum that saw Kris Letang and Adrian Kempe both go to the box with Kempe getting an extra minor.
At the end of that kill, the Penguins made a bad change which left Erik Karlsson defending Anze Kopitar and Carl Grundstrom all alone in the defensive zone.
Kopitar fired a puck backdoor to Grundstrom who slipped the puck past Magnus Hellberg to tie the game.
The Kings came out strong in the second period, outshooting the Penguins 14-5, but couldn't hold onto their lead.
Kempe put the Kings up 2-1 just under ten minutes into the period with an absolute snipe. After picking up the puck just inside the offensive zone, Kempe blew the puck by a set Hellberg, an elite shooters goal.
The Kings held that lead for must of the period but gave it up late. Kevin Fiala lost the puck in the neutral zone and couldn't recover, allowing Lars Eller to cut to the middle and beat Copley over the shoulder.
This game was nothing if not consistent, with the two teams trading a pair of goals again in the third.
Jake Guentzel put the Penguins up 3-2 37 seconds into the third after a fantastic feed from Crosby.
Fiala then made up for his earlier mistake, following up a Dubois shot and beating Hellberg on the backhand to tie the game at three.
The game needed overtime to be decided.
Late in overtime Bryan Rust thought he won the game, putting home Karlsson's backdoor feed, but the goal was called back for offside.
But, shortly after, Rust would win the game, putting home the Penguins second wraparound goal to give them the 4-3 win.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Kopitar Makes History ... Again:
Does this one look familiar? It should. After hitting the 400 goal mark on Wednesday, Kopitar surpassed Luc Robitaille for sole possession of second place on the Kings' all-time scoring charts with his first period assist to Grundstrom.
It seems like every game now Kopitar hits a new milestone of breaks another franchise record, and he does it all while still posting great performances.
He's truly a once in a generation player and maybe the greatest King of all time.
Adrian Kempe Stellar Again:
Before the season started, I was wondering if Kempe could find yet another level after a strong preseason, but a slow started curbed some of those thoughts.
Now on an eight game point streak, Kempe has re-ignited those thoughts, leading the team in points, while sitting second in goals.
His goal on Thursday was a vintage Kempe goal too. Coming down the left wing, Kempe absolutely wired a puck past Hellberg.
Beating an NHL goalie who's set cleanly is impressive enough, but Kempe does it regularly, cementing himself as a truly elite scorer.
His overall game looks better too. He's starting to regularly take over shifts and drive play for the Kings.
Too add onto his goal, Kempe also led the game with eight shots.
Copley Struggles Again:
Todd McLellan was adamant after the game that his coaching staff hasn't lost any faith in Copely, but I have.
No matter how you cut it, four goals on 20 shots simply isn't good enough. Add in that two goals were stoppable wraparounds and another was a stoppable shot, and the concern really begins creeping in.
Cam Talbot has been stellar, so it's not time to hit the panic button yet, but if Copley doesn't find his game soon, David Rittich should be called up.