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The Kings picked up a 2-1 win over the Florida Panthers on Wednesday night. Coming in comeback fashion, the Kings strong third period proved to be the difference on this particular night.

Fresh off of an underwhelming performance at Crypto.com Arena from the Kings on Monday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, it was a solid first 20 minutes from the home team. Though scoreless heading into the first intermission, the Kings had multiple power plays and opportunities to take the lead, but held the Panthers to just five shots while notching eight of their own.

Unfortunately, the second period was not more of the same. In a period where the Panthers outshot the Kings 17-6, they also earned themselves a power play. Having killed off over 1:30 of the Panthers power play, the Kings were unable to keep the puck out of their net in the dying seconds. Following a missed net from Mackie Samoskevich in the Kings slot, Anton Lundell quickly gathered the puck off the end boards and found Evan Rodrigues wide open backdoor for the goal. The goal came 7:27 into the period and no goals from either side followed the rest of the stanza.

Enter period three and the Kings refound their game. Flipping the second prior script, the Kings outshot the Panthers 14-6 and were rewarded multiple times doing so. The momentum flipping game-tying goal came in monumental fashion for rookie Samuel Helenius. Scoring at the 6:41 mark, Jordan Spence’s point shot found traffic in front of the net but created a loose puck. Both going after the puck at the same time were Panthers goalie Spencer Knight with his glove and a laid out Tanner Jeannot with his stick. Just beating Knight to the loose puck was Jeannot, who poked the puck off of the goalie’s pad and right to an open Helenius on the side of the net. Helenius promptly tapped the puck into the net, scoring his first career NHL goal in career game number 25. Then, the hottest King as of late struck again. All even with 6:48 remaining in regulation. Adrian Kempe tipped in a Kevin Fiala one-timer off of a beautiful pass from Brandt Clarke, netting his 24th goal of the season and his eighth goal in the last 10 games. Clarke’s goal-creating 21st assist of the season breaks his tie with Kempe to move into sole possession of second on the Kings in helpers, while Fiala’s assist extends his point streak against the Panthers to three games (1-3=4). Darcy Kuemper and the team clamped down the rest of the way and came out victorious, snapping the Kings miniature skid of two games.

Kuemper’s excellent play continued on Wednesday, stopping 27 of 28 shots. Kuemper has now allowed one goal or less in six of his last seven starts, improving his record to 14-4-5.

FLA at LAK | Recap