The LA Kings collected their 90th point of the season on Tuesday evening in Vancouver but were unable to collect the second as they fell by a 4-3 margin in overtime against the Canucks at Rogers Arena.
Vancouver opened the scoring midway through the first period as defenseman Elias Pettersson got on the board. Petterson took a pass across the blueline from his defensive partner, Kirill Kudraytsev, and with a moving screen in the high slot, he got a shot through from the left point, past Kings netminder Darcy Kuemper at the near post, for his third goal of the season and an early 1-0 lead.
Inside the final three minutes of the opening period, the Kings tied the score as forwards Quinton Byfield, Alex Laferriere and Trevor Moore combined again for a nice goal off the rush. Moore played the puck off the wall to Laferriere, creating a tight, 2-on-1 into the offensive zone. Laferriere fed Byfield driving the net for his third goal of the roadtrip and his 23rd of the season, tying a career high and the game at 1-1.
The Canucks scored on their first power play of the game, inside the first 60 seconds of the second period, to pull back in front by a goal. Just moments after Kuemper bailed out the penalty kill with a windmill glove save, Vancouver got one to go as a bouncing puck kicked around in the slot before forward Jake DeBrusk got it across the line with a backhanded effort, putting the hosts ahead 2-1.
It took only 12 seconds for the Kings to answer back, however, as forward Adrian Kempe tied the score at two. Attacking out of the corner, forward Artemi Panarin fed forward Anze Kopitar in the circle, before Kopitar worked the puck to Kempe uncovered at the back post for the goal, his 36th of the season. Kempe’s goal was his ninth in the month of April, three more than the next closest player.
The Kings took their first lead of the game just 73 seconds later, as Laferriere and Byfield collected their second points of the evening. After Byfield got the puck to defenseman Drew Doughty at the point, the veteran defenseman got a shot on net, which was kicked out by Vancouver goaltender Kevin Lankinen, but Laferriere collected the rebound and scored for the second straight game to put the visitors ahead 3-2.
The hosts answered back midway through the second period, equalizing through defenseman Zeev Buium. The Kings got hemmed into their own zone after a broken stick and lost track of Buium, who drove the net and buried a pass from forward Nils Hoglander to tie the game at three goals apiece.
After neither team found the back of the net in the third period, the game advanced into overtime, with Vancouver finding the game-winning goal, scored by forward Jake DeBrusk. With the one point, Los Angeles moved into a tie for the third playoff spot in the Pacific Division with Anaheim, with three different seeds remaining in play entering Game 82 on Thursday in Calgary.
