Kings rally past Senators for seventh straight victory

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Kings won their seventh straight game, 3-2 against the Ottawa Senators at Staples Center on Wednesday.

Martin Frk broke a tie with 4:41 remaining in the third period and Gabriel Vilardi had a goal and an assist for the Kings (29-35-6), who are 10-2-1 in their past 13 games. Cal Petersen made 24 saves.
"It's selfish for me to say because I'm one of the new faces coming in, but we've won seven games," Vilardi said. "That means we're obviously doing something right. It feels pretty good to win hockey games. That's what we want to do."
WATCH: [All Senators vs. Kings highlights]
Bobby Ryan and Jayce Hawryluk scored, and Craig Anderson made 36 saves for the Senators (25-34-12), who were playing the second game of a back-to-back. They lost 5-2 at the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
"I thought, overall, we played a pretty solid game," Anderson said. "I think we were doing a lot of right things, a lot of good things out there. The puck didn't bounce our way there, but we had a couple of good opportunities there at the end to tie it up and we just weren't able to capitalize."
Frk scored on a 3-on-2 after Drew Doughty broke up a shorthanded rush in the final seconds of a Kings power play.
Vilardi tied it 2-2 on the power play at 9:12 of the third period with a wrist shot through traffic. He has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his first 10 NHL games, including four points (two goals, two assists) during a three-game point streak.

Vilardi was selected by the Kings with the No. 11 pick in the 2017 NHL Draft but his development was curtailed by a back injury.
"I'm sure he'd be the first one to tell you that a year and a half off from playing hockey is still a little bit in his game, but I like what I'm seeing," Kings center Anze Kopitar said. "Obviously he's got a great hockey mind, high hockey IQ. He's making plays. He's not afraid of making plays. That's probably one of the biggest positives in his game. He's playing his game and getting on the scoresheet."
Hawryluk tipped Andreas Englund's shot from the right point during a delayed penalty to give the Senators a 2-1 lead at 1:57 of the third period. It was Hawryluk's seventh point (two goals, five assists) in 11 games since being claimed off waivers from the Florida Panthers on Feb. 17.

The Senators went ahead 1-0 29 seconds into the first period when Ryan scored from the left circle off a cross-slot pass from Brady Tkachuk. Ryan said it was a point of emphasis to start strong after allowing four goals in the first period of a 5-2 loss at the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday.
"When you start like that, that's just a bonus," Ryan said. "But after last night, I think we made a commitment to doing things correctly for the first 10 minutes and really making things simple, and then kind of trying to build and I thought we did a good job. We controlled the pace for quite a bit of the game."
Trevor Lewis tied it 1-1 at 10:09 by following up his initial shot after crashing the crease.

They said it

"It was a close game right to the end. Both teams had their chances. We had some chances with the goalie out. Unfortunately took a couple penalties in the third period and then they find a way to score late."-- Senators coach D.J. Smith
"We certainly thought that we could play that way. Unfortunately it didn't turn out [that way earlier this season]. And we found some mojo. We're playing where, bottom line, we're having fun, but we're playing hard so that's winning us games." -- Kings center Anze Kopitar on their seven-game winning streak

Need to know

The Kings haven't won seven games in a row since they won eight from Nov. 25-Dec. 9, 2017. … Doughty had an assist to pass Butch Goring (384) for seventh in Kings history. He has three assists during a three-game streak. … Kings defenseman Ben Hutton had an assist, his third during a three-game streak. … Los Angeles is 8-1-1 in its past 10 home games, including six straight wins. … Tkachuk has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past five games.

What's next

Senators: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET; NBCSCH, TSN5, RDS, NHL.TV)
Kings: Host the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; FS-W, PRIME, NHL.TV)