Kempe, Kings defeat Canadiens in OT, push winning streak to six

MONTREAL -- Adrian Kempe scored with 1:21 remaining in overtime, and the Los Angeles Kings extended their winning streak to six games with a 3-2 victory against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

The forward drove the right side and carried the puck behind the Montreal net, doing a lap around the offensive zone before cutting across the front of the goal and shooting past Jake Allen.
"It's incredible," Kings goalie Cal Petersen said. "Tons of speed, for him to be able to control the puck and get across the net like that and make that, it's huge. And he's one of the guys that we count on in those overtime situations. He has plenty of game-winning goals like that so we count on him to do that, and he comes through."
Kempe has scored 11 game-winning goals in his NHL career, including three overtime goals.
Alex Iafallo scored to extend his point streak to seven games, and Petersen made 33 saves for Los Angeles (7-5-1), which won back-to-back games on the road for the first time since Feb. 4-5, 2019, against the New York Rangers and New Jersey Devils. The Kings defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-1 on Monday.
"I thought we really picked some momentum up in that second period, couldn't find a way to score, Allen was tremendous," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "And then we scored in the third, and after the power play, we didn't get a lot off that, we actually lost the momentum, they got some life and Cal had to make some good saves. So the good thing is we found enough to win on back-to-back nights."

Ben Chiarot and Jake Evans scored, and Artturi Lehkonen had two assists for Montreal (3-10-1), which has lost three straight and five of six. Allen made 31 saves.
"We work so hard in practice, we work so hard in games," Evans said. "We're a tight team and everyone would take a bullet for each other, so we've just got to get back to it. And I do really think we're growing and we're getting better as a team and we're fixing our problems, and I think it's only going to go up from here."
The Kings began their winning streak by defeating the Canadiens 5-2 in Los Angeles on Oct. 30.
"They have young guys that work and they have older guys that are pulling and leading the way," Canadiens forward Tyler Toffoli said. "So I think that we can definitely take note of that and just keeping working ourselves, just keep pushing and keep grinding. It's frustrating not being able to pull out these wins, but we're doing a lot of good things and eventually they're going to start turning in our direction."

Kings forward Phillip Danault had two shots on goal and three blocked shots in his first game at Bell Centre since leaving the Canadiens to sign a six-year, $33 million contract ($5.5 million average annual value) with Los Angeles as a free agent July 28. He was booed early in the game but received a standing ovation when a video tribute was played on the scoreboard during the first period.
"It was very emotional, it started from boos to ovation," said Danault, who played six seasons with the Canadiens. "That Montreal crowd, it was a great honor."

Evans tied it 2-2 at 13:22. He scored on a wrist shot to the stick side after he broke down the right side and dangled the puck around Kings defenseman Tobias Bjornfot.
Chiarot put the Canadiens up 1-0 at 15:03 of the first period. He scored from along the goal line on Montreal's fourth shot of a scramble in front after Los Angeles defenseman Olli Maatta batted down Lehkonen's shot at an open net and the puck went to Chiarot.
Brendan Lemieux scored on a wrist shot over Allen's right shoulder to tie it 1-1 at 4:56 of the second.
Iafallo gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead when he scored six seconds into the third. He batted the puck past Canadiens defenseman David Savard off the opening face-off and recovered it off the boards before scoring on a wrist shot from the left face-off dot.
"It was a fun game, a lot of back and forth," Petersen said. "A lot of credit to them. Once they went down 2-1 in the third there, they really came at us and gave it everything that they had. So I thought it was an extremely good game by both sides."
NOTES: Kempe has scored six goals in seven games against Montreal. … Iafallo has 10 points (five goals, five assists) during his streak. His goal was the fastest in Kings history from the start of a period, and the fastest by an NHL player since Oct. 19, 2019, when Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher scored six seconds into the second period of a 5-2 win at the St. Louis Blues. Dave Williams held the previous Los Angeles record, scoring seven seconds into the first in a 5-2 win against the Hartford Whalers on Feb. 14, 1987, which is the Kings' fastest goal from the start of a game. … Montreal forward Jonathan Drouin missed a third straight game. He is day to day after being hit in the head by a shot by teammate Brett Kulak during a game against the Detroit Red Wings on Nov. 2.