The Blues evened the season series against the Kings in their second of three meetings on Sunday afternoon. In St. Louis for their second stop of the three-game road trip, the Kings picked up one out of two possible points. The overtime loss gives the Kings a record of 2-8-6 in their last 16 games.
The Kings opened the scoring early in the first period when the new look top line found the back of the net. With Quinton Byfield missing his second consecutive game due to illness, Alex Laferriere joined Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe. The trio each factored in on the first goal as Laferriere won a board battle and got the puck to an open Kopitar, who in turn fed Kempe in the high slot for a one-time goal. Kempe has now scored goals in four straight games against the Blues (5-1=6) and has six goals over his last six games vs. St. Louis, dating back to Nov. 3, 2021, becoming the sixth skater in franchise history to score a goal in four straight games against the Blues.
Midway into the first period, the Blues evened the score with a Nick Leddy point shot and sent the game into the first intermission all tied up at 1-1. The Kings then retook the lead with a Jaret Anderson-Dolan shorthanded tally, as the Calgary native potted his first goal of the season. It took the Blues less than a minute respond as the home team converted on the ongoing power play. A second Blues goal in the period followed, this time from Jordan Kyrou, giving the home team a 3-2 with 7:53 to go in the middle stanza. Late in the period, the Kings evened the score when Phillip Danault buried his 10th goal of the season in his 600th career game.
A scoreless third period went by and the game went into overtime. It took just 1:04 for a game-winner as Brayden Schenn beat David Rittich on a contested lone break.
The aforementioned Rittich stopped 28 of 32 shots. His record now sits at 4-1-3.
