#LAKings Jonathan Quick gets win in 700th game as Kings beats Florida (Daily News)
LOS ANGELES A patchwork lineup of Kings triumphed against one of the NHLs top teams, the Florida Panthers, 3-2 in a shootout at Crypto.com Arena on Sunday night.
Forward Rasmus Kupari and winger Martin Frk each scored a goal for the Kings. Jonathan Quick made 28 saves in his 700th career game. Forwards Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore scored in the shootout, with Moore netting the winner.
Center Eetu Luostarinen and defenseman Brandon Montour tallied for Florida. Aleksander Barkov connected in the shootout. Spencer Knight stopped 34 shots. The Panthers had won five straight games.
In an odd bit of symmetry, the Kings entered Sundays game with seven players on injured reserve and an eighth on his way. In their 4-1 victory over Florida on Dec. 17, the Panthers were missing seven players due to COVID protocols, three more due to injury and, despite a spate of callups, were only able to dress 16 skaters.
While not injured, linemates Adrian Kopitar and Kempe have been absent from the scoresheet of late. In their last nine games, the duo has accumulated just two combined points, both assists by Kopitar.
They have to pick their share up a little bit. They dont have to score all the time, just their overall game, and I think on the power play in particular, coach Todd McLellan said after Thursdays 4-3 loss to San Jose. Theyre world-class players, and we have world-class players on the power play, who need to get it done. Its as simple as that.
Compounding matters, they had also gone scoreless on the power play in their last five games and 59:42 of Sundays game. They were the only team in the NHL not to have scored a power-play goal between March 3 and the start of Sundays games.
That was until the dying gasps of regulation Sunday, when Martin Frks thunderous slap shot from behind the left faceoff dot knotted the game with 18 seconds to play. It was the Kings first power-play goal in half a dozen games and a dozen opportunities.
The Kings pressed for a tying goal in the third period but their efforts were abated by Knight, who has allowed three goals in his last two starts since a month-long stint in the minors, until the final 31 seconds. Florida afforded the Kings an opportunity when winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who ranks second in scoring league-wide, elbowed winger Alex Iafallo. That illegal hit led to a scrum, a Kings power play and the equalizer that sent the game to overtime.
The Panthers took their first lead 3:44 into the second period when Barkov combined strength and savvy along the wall to generate a shot attempt that glanced off winger Patric Hornqvist to Montour. The former Ducks defenseman swept the puck in as he fell to the ice.
Florida had drawn even a mere 43 seconds into the middle frame when a turnover following a faceoff sent Luostarinen the other way into space. As defenseman Sean Durzi caught up to him, he flicked an innocuous wrist shot along the ice that improbably beat Quick between his pads for a shorthanded marker.
Quick had been sharp in a first period in which the Kings were out-shot 11-6, including a play where he made a toe save on a followup attempt despite having his movement restricted by a pile of humanity in the crease.
The Kings initiated the scoring 11:50 into the game when Kupari stick-handled his way across the offensive zone before squeezing a backhand shot in through the short side. Center Quinton Byfields assist was the third of his career and defenseman Jordan Spences helper was his first in the NHL.
https://www.dailynews.com/2022/03/13...beats-florida/
Forward Rasmus Kupari and winger Martin Frk each scored a goal for the Kings. Jonathan Quick made 28 saves in his 700th career game. Forwards Adrian Kempe and Trevor Moore scored in the shootout, with Moore netting the winner.
Center Eetu Luostarinen and defenseman Brandon Montour tallied for Florida. Aleksander Barkov connected in the shootout. Spencer Knight stopped 34 shots. The Panthers had won five straight games.
In an odd bit of symmetry, the Kings entered Sundays game with seven players on injured reserve and an eighth on his way. In their 4-1 victory over Florida on Dec. 17, the Panthers were missing seven players due to COVID protocols, three more due to injury and, despite a spate of callups, were only able to dress 16 skaters.
While not injured, linemates Adrian Kopitar and Kempe have been absent from the scoresheet of late. In their last nine games, the duo has accumulated just two combined points, both assists by Kopitar.
They have to pick their share up a little bit. They dont have to score all the time, just their overall game, and I think on the power play in particular, coach Todd McLellan said after Thursdays 4-3 loss to San Jose. Theyre world-class players, and we have world-class players on the power play, who need to get it done. Its as simple as that.
Compounding matters, they had also gone scoreless on the power play in their last five games and 59:42 of Sundays game. They were the only team in the NHL not to have scored a power-play goal between March 3 and the start of Sundays games.
That was until the dying gasps of regulation Sunday, when Martin Frks thunderous slap shot from behind the left faceoff dot knotted the game with 18 seconds to play. It was the Kings first power-play goal in half a dozen games and a dozen opportunities.
The Kings pressed for a tying goal in the third period but their efforts were abated by Knight, who has allowed three goals in his last two starts since a month-long stint in the minors, until the final 31 seconds. Florida afforded the Kings an opportunity when winger Jonathan Huberdeau, who ranks second in scoring league-wide, elbowed winger Alex Iafallo. That illegal hit led to a scrum, a Kings power play and the equalizer that sent the game to overtime.
The Panthers took their first lead 3:44 into the second period when Barkov combined strength and savvy along the wall to generate a shot attempt that glanced off winger Patric Hornqvist to Montour. The former Ducks defenseman swept the puck in as he fell to the ice.
Florida had drawn even a mere 43 seconds into the middle frame when a turnover following a faceoff sent Luostarinen the other way into space. As defenseman Sean Durzi caught up to him, he flicked an innocuous wrist shot along the ice that improbably beat Quick between his pads for a shorthanded marker.
Quick had been sharp in a first period in which the Kings were out-shot 11-6, including a play where he made a toe save on a followup attempt despite having his movement restricted by a pile of humanity in the crease.
The Kings initiated the scoring 11:50 into the game when Kupari stick-handled his way across the offensive zone before squeezing a backhand shot in through the short side. Center Quinton Byfields assist was the third of his career and defenseman Jordan Spences helper was his first in the NHL.
https://www.dailynews.com/2022/03/13...beats-florida/