Clarke breaks tie in 3rd, Kings edge Senators to end 3-game slide

LOS ANGELES -- Brandt Clarke scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period to help the Los Angeles Kings to a 2-1 victory against the Ottawa Senators at Crypto.com Arena on Monday.

Clarke gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead while on the power play at 13:50. He sent a one-timer from the point that redirected in off Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub's left leg as the power play was about to expire.

It was the second power-play goal in the past seven games for the Kings, who are 2-for-22 in that span.

“I don’t know that we were particularly sharp (on the power play). They killed really well, but it only takes one good play, right?” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said.

It was the second win for the Kings (11-6-6) at home this season (2-4-3), where they are also 5-for-33 (15.2 percent) on the power play.

“We probably would have won a few more if we’d had one or two (power-play goals) in some of those other games,” Hiller said. “The game, to me, is very similar to probably about five of them here that we’ve had, that maybe we’ve come out short by a goal. Like, you could be talking about, ‘Man, he didn’t get the goal, and it was a hard-fought game, and what’s wrong.’ And when the puck goes in, now we’re celebrating the results. So, that’s how important it is.”

Warren Foegele also scored, and Joel Edmundson had two assists for Los Angeles, which had lost its past three games (0-1-2). Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves.

“We have so much confidence when he’s in the net,” Clarke said of Kuemper, who is 5-1-1 in his past seven games. “There’s some situations where, like, it almost seems like it’s a bigger breakdown that it looks like. But just because he’s so calm and makes the routine save, like, it doesn’t even get brought up. We’re so grateful to have him, and, yeah, he’s our backbone, and he killed it tonight.”

Fabian Zetterlund scored, and Leevi Merilainen made 20 saves for the Senators (11-7-4), who had won the first two games of a seven-game road trip.

“I mean, some nights the puck doesn’t go in,” Zetterlund said. “We’re trying to keep our game tight, you know, and play our game. And we have another team on the ice that we’re facing, and they do a good job, too. So, I mean, some nights are tougher than others.”

The Kings took a 1-0 lead at 5:31 of the third. Edmundson started off a clean end-to-end breakout that ended with Joel Armia feeding Foegele at the left post with a backdoor pass.

“It was two incredible passes,” Foegele said. “My only job was just to beat my guy, and I thought I could do that, and fortunate that it went in.”

It was Foegele’s third goal in his past seven games. He had one goal in his first 11 games of the season.

“I thought the two players who really jumped out at me tonight were [Foegele] and Phil Danault,” Hiller said. “I thought those guys really had impactful games. Penalty kill, playing against (Tim) Stutzle’s line. … They haven’t probably felt as good about their game as they’d like to. They were really important for us tonight.”

Zetterlund tied it 1-1 at 10:49, knocking in the rebound of Nikolas Matinpalo’s shot from the left face-off circle.

The Kings swept the season series, having won 1-0 against the Senators at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Nov. 15. Alex Laferriere scored the only goal in that game, and Anton Forsberg made 17 saves for the shutout.

Much like in their first meeting, quality scoring chances were hard to come by for both teams.

“It was a tight game tonight,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “Both teams checked well. They get a bounce at the end of the game. Really, what decided it was a bounce.”

NOTES: The Kings extended their point streak against the Senators to 12 games (9-0-3). … Edmundson had his third multipoint game of the season. He also leads all Los Angeles defensemen with nine assists. … The Senators had their three-game road winning streak and five-game road point streak (3-0-2) end.