The LA Kings came out of the break with a disappointing, 6-4 defeat against the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday evening at Crypto.com Arena.
Vegas opened the scoring, as the visitors capitalized on a 2-on-1 rush to get on the board. Forward Tanner Laczynski led the rush down the left wing and although his shot missed the net, kicking off the endboards, the puck bounced back into the middle of the ice, directly to forward Pavel Dorofeyev, where he buried his 27th goal of the season to put the Golden Knights ahead early in the game.
The Kings tied the game later in the first period with one of their best power plays of the season. Operating off the left-wall, forward Artemi Panarin fired a pass through the slot that deflected off the skate of forward Quinton Byfield, on net and in for Panarin’s first point as a member of the Kings organization. Byfield’s goal was his 12th of the season, with defenseman Brandt Clarke collecting the secondary helper.
With just over five minutes remaining in the second period, the Kings took their first lead of the evening with a highlight-reel goal in transition. Panarin made the first pass, to forward Anze Kopitar in the slot, where the captain showed incredible composure in transition, feeding forward Adrian Kempe charging through the middle of the ice, where he buried his team-leading 21st goal of the season for the 2-1 lead.
The Golden Knights tied the game just over eight minutes into the third period, as forward Colton Sissons buried his fourth goal of the season. Attacking off the rush, a shot attempt by forward Braeden Bowman was flubbed, but the puck bounced off a Kings skate, directly to Sissons at the back post, where he worked the puck into the back of the net to knot the score at two goals apiece.
The visitors tacked on two more goals in a span of just 65 seconds to open up a multi-goal lead in the third period.
First, forward Brandon Saad found himself with some space in the high slot and beat Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg from distance for his third goal of the season, putting the Golden Knights back in front. Just over a minute later, Reilly Smith made it 4-2 with a nice individual effort, as he worked his way
Byfield made it a multi-goal game shortly after Smith’s goal, pulling the hosts back within one. Forward Andrei Kuzmenko put in some good work below the goal line, as he worked his way through a pair of Vegas defensemen to jar the puck loose, which Byfield collected, pulled to the front of the net and finished into the roof of the net, bringing the Kings back to within 4-3.
Skating on a late-game power play, Vegas made it 5-3 with Dorofeyev’s second goal of the game. Dorofeyev beat Byfield to the back post and buried a feed from Laczynski for his 28th goal of the season, with the visitors taking a 5-3 lead with 4:01 left in the third period.
The Kings added a late consolation goal from defenseman Brandt Clarke, who buried from the center point with 66 seconds on the clock, before Vegas ice the game with an empty-net goal from forward Ivan Barbashev to seal a 6-4 win.
Hear from Panarin, Byfield and Head Coach Jim Hiller following tonight’s defeat.
