The LA Kings saw their three-game winning streak come to an end after tonight's 4-1 defeat against the Buffalo Sabres.
Buffalo opened the scoring on the game’s first power play, with forward Alex Tuch getting the hosts on the board. Working off the right-hand wall, Tuch spun and fired a pass towards the slot, which took an unlucky deflection off the skate of Kings defenseman Cody Ceci and through the legs of Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper for Tuch’s 20th goal of the season and a 1-0 lead for the hosts.
The Sabres doubled their advantage later in the opening period, taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission. Off a faceoff win in the offensive zone, Buffalo executed the play well, working the point to defenseman Mattias Samuelsson at the right point. Samuelson fired a one-timer clean through that deflected off the glove of Kuemper and in, putting the visitors up by a pair in the process.
Shortly after the Kings had a goal controversially disallowed, Buffalo extended its lead to three goals as Tuch buried his second of the evening. Defenseman Bowen Byrum had the puck at the point and his shot found its way to the front of the net, with Tuch getting a piece of it to send the puck past Kuemper and in for his second goal of the evening and a three-goal lead for the Sabres.
Skating on their second power play of the evening, the Kings got on the board with a goal on the man advantage, pulling back within a pair. Forwards Kevin Fiala and Adrian Kempe executed perfectly very early in the sequence, with Kempe streaking through the high slot and getting a deflection on a hard pass from Fiala, sending it past Buffalo goaltender Alex Lyon and in as the visitors moved to within 3-1.
Inside the final minutes of the game, the Kings took a delay of game penalty with just over three minutes to play in regulation. They were able to successfully kill it off, but forward Alex Tuch completed his hat trick with 60 seconds remaining, bringing us to the final score of 4-1.
Hear from Kempe, defenseman Cody Ceci and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s game.
