The Kings dropped their second straight game of the road trip on Saturday night, falling by the score of 4-2 to the Calgary Flames for the second time this season. It was a battle of the special teams across the 60-minute affair that saw 10 combined power plays. Normally in favor of the Kings with their elite penalty kill and above average power play, it was the Flames that won tonight’s battle and earned two points as a result. With the regulation loss, the Kings remain behind the Vegas Golden Knights in the race for the third seed in the Pacific Division and maintain the final Wild Card spot in the Western Conference playoff picture, five points ahead of the St. Louis Blues.
With five of the six goals coming on the man advantage on this night, the power play's were having their way with two of the NHL’s top five ranked penalty kill units. The Flames power play opened the scoring 4:45 into the game with a Nazem Kadri tally from the slot. Taking just eight second to score after the penalty, a faceoff win by the Flames allowed for a clean offensive zone set up and a tic-tac-toe play ended up in the back of the net. In response, the Kings matched their counterpart just 57 seconds later with theirn own power-play goal. Also coming quickly after the power play’s opening faceoff, the Kings struck six seconds in with an Adrian Kempe one-timer to even the score. Later in the opening period, the only even strength goal was scored by the Flames. With 8:04 to go in the period, the Flames took advantage of a Kings turnover in the defensive zone and Martin Pospisil tallied his eighth goal of the season with a backdoor tap-in.
Into period two and the Flames doubled their lead with their second power-play goal of the game. Blake Coleman added to his career year and beat David Rittich on a rebound with 8:02 to go in the period, netting his 29th goal of the season. The Kings fought back late in the second period as Anze Kopitar brought his team back within one with a one-timer for his 25th goal of the season with 1:35 remaining. Grabbing the momentum, the Kings pressed for the last 95 seconds of the second, but couldn’t even the score. Unbeknownst at the time, those 95 seconds of pressure were the closest they’d get to tying the game.
The game’s final goal came in the third period with 8:30 to go in regulation as the Kings allowed their season-high third power-play goal. A MacKenzie Weegar one-timer put the Flames back up by two with his 18th goal of the season, a lead the Kings would not be able to cut into.
Despite picking the loss, David Rittich kept the Kings in the game while being outshot 35-18. Rittich made 31 saves.
