Penguins recover to defeat Kings on Kessel OT goal

PITTSBURGH -- Matt Murray made 38 saves in his first start since Nov. 17, and Phil Kessel scored a power-play goal at 3:59 of overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 4-3 win against the Los Angeles Kings at PPG Paints Arena on Saturday.

Murray won for the first time since making 38 saves in a 9-1 victory against the Calgary Flames on Oct. 25. He backed up Casey DeSmith the past two games after being sidelined with a lower-body injury the previous nine.
"It feels good," Murray said. "It feels like forever since I've played. So it's really exciting. I was having a blast out there, just being back out there. I was very thankful. And then to get a win on top of it. I thought we played well. A lot of excitement on that 3-on-3 overtime]. I was glad we got the win."
***[WATCH: [All Kings vs. Penguins highlights]*
Kessel won it with a one-timer from below the left face-off circle for the Penguins (15-11-6), who are 5-1-1 in their past seven games.
Alex Iafallo and Jake Muzzin each had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Quick made 32 saves for Los Angeles (11-20-3), which has lost four straight.

The Kings came back from down two goals to tie the game 3-3 when Iafallo scored with a one-timer from the top of the right circle on the power play at 12:30 of the third period.
"We lost," Quick said. "Effort's not enough. That's a given. The effort should be there every night. We lost. That's how it works. ... It's a one-day-at-a-time job. So we lost today. That [stinks]. Wake up tomorrow and now we're working on winning the next game. That's all it is."
Pittsburgh's Tanner Pearson scored in the second period of his first game against his former team. He has four goals in 16 games with the Penguins since being acquired in a trade from the Kings for forward Carl Hagelin on Nov. 14.
"It definitely was a little weird out there," said Pearson, who won the Stanley Cup with Los Angeles in 2014 as a rookie. "You step into warmups and you see all those guys. A few pucks shot at you during warmups, but all in good fun. It was definitely nice to get the two points and finish that off. It was definitely icing on the cake, for sure."

Matt Cullen put the Penguins ahead 1-0 when he scored their second shorthanded goal in two games at 6:58 of the first period. After collecting the puck behind the net, Cullen skated Matt Luff to the top of the right circle, deked inside Adrian Kempe, and scored from the high slot.
Bryan Rust made it 2-0 at 13:04 of the first with a snap shot set up by Sidney Crosby. He has four goals in the past three games after scoring one in the first 29 games of the season.
Muzzin cut it to 2-1 when he tapped in Anze Kopitar's pass at 3:22 of the second period.

Pearson extended the Penguins lead to 3-1 at 8:29 of the second. After stripping Drew Doughty of the puck in the Kings zone, Pearson skated toward the net alone, avoided a Quick poke-check, and shot high into the net.
Luff made it 3-2 at 10:06 of the second on a snap shot.
Iafallo's power-play goal was the second on the road this season for the Kings (2-for-41).
"It's a tough one. You want to win those games," Iafallo said. "Looking at the positives and negatives, we did battle back. We had chances and a good battle back from all of us. Negative, we wanted that win and we just have to finish some chances. We had to help out [Quick], so we should've gotten the win there."

They said it

"They'll refocus again for the next game. It's way better that they're in there upset than if they're in there feeling that everything's great. We got a point. It's good to see them upset." -- Kings coach Willie Desjardins
"I thought Matt [Murray] was really good. For the first game back after as long as he's been out, I thought he was really sharp. I thought he got better as the game went on. Obviously, we give up a couple breakaways in the overtime. Those are huge saves for us." -- Penguins coach Mike Sullivan

Need to know

Tyler Toffoli scored for the Kings at 16:40 of the first period, but Penguins coach Mike Sullivan challenged for offside, and the goal was overturned after video review showed Kempe enter the Pittsburgh zone ahead of the puck at 16:36. ... Los Angeles defenseman
Daniel Brickley
played 12:52 in his first NHL game since April 5 after being recalled from Ontario of the American Hockey League on Wednesday. He was minus-2. ... Iafallo extended his point streak to four games (one goal, four assists). ... Pittsburgh played without defenseman Kris Letang, who is day to day with a lower-body injury sustained in a collision with Boston Bruins forward Joakim Nordstrom in the third period of a 5-3 win Friday. Juuso Riikola played 15:31 in Letang's place on a pair with Brian Dumoulin.

What's next

Kings: Host the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday (10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Penguins: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Monday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, ATTSN-PT, PRIME, NHL.TV)