The Kings extended their point streak to four games (3-0-1) on Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena. Going into overtime for the second consecutive game, it was the Kings that came out on top this time with a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators. With the win, the Kings completed the season series sweep over the Senators having taken the previous meeting in Canada’s capital back on November 1st.
It was not a strong first 40 minutes for the Kings on Thursday as interim head coach Jim Hiller put it in the postgame press conference, crediting goaltender Cam Talbot for keeping the Kings in the game during the slow start. Despite the two allowed goals in the first two periods, Talbot made multiple miraculous saves, including a pair of sprawling stops on Tim Stutzle to keep the Kings within striking distance while the team tried to find their legs.
The Senators struck first in the game when former Kings draft pick Dominik Kubalik beat Talbot with a high tip on the power play for his 10th goal of the season. Coming 7:33 into the opening period, the score remained the same through the remainder of the period.
Stuck at 1-0 past the halfway mark of the game, it was Quinton Byfield who knotted the game up for a brief stint. Coming mere seconds after one of Talbot’s two saves on Stutzle, Byfield fended off a Senators defenseman for a contested breakaway and beat the former Kings goaltender Joonas Korpisalo for his 19th goal or the season. Short-lived, the Senators responded 15 seconds later with Brady Tkachuk’s 27th goal of the season, this one coming in the form of a wraparound.
Trailing 2-1 entering the third period, the Kings found life and in doing so found some offense. Beginning with the game-tying goal, the Kings evened the game on a 6-on-5 man advantage with a delayed Senators penalty pending. Anze Kopitar found a backdoor Pierre-Luc Dubois for his 14th tally of the season to bring the game to deuces wild with 9:36 to go in regulation. Next to find the back of the net was Jacob Moverare, who netted his first career goal in his 32nd career NHL game. With assists coming from Kopitar and Drew Doughty, Moverare threw a puck towards the net and benefitted from a Senators deflection, ultimately getting passed Korpisalo for a 3-2 Kings lead. Then, with 4:23 to go in regulation, it was the Senators who responded and knotted the game at 3-3. Drake Batherson beat Talbot with a one-timer and sent the game into overtime.
With each team having picked up at least one point, it was the Kings who earned the second one when Kevin Fiala made a beautiful individual play to beat Korpisalo up high after fighting off two Senators skaters. The goal for Fiala gives him 20 on the season and his three overtime tallies are the most among Kings players since he joined the team last season.
Talbot stopped 28 of 31 shots faced and earned his 19th win of the season in his fifth consecutive start for the Kings.
