SAN JOSE -- The Los Angeles Kings came out with the kind of start they needed, then spent the rest of the night chasing the game.
That chase ended in another overtime heartbreaker Saturday at SAP Center, where the Kings erased a two-goal third-period deficit but still fell 5-4 to the Sharks. Los Angeles had the puck, had the pressure and even had the late momentum. It just didn’t have the finish.
Adrian Kempe gave the Kings the opening jolt, burying a power-play one-timer off a feed from Artemi Panarin to make it 1-0 early. The goal mattered not just on the scoreboard, but for a man advantage that had gone 0-for-4 in Wednesday’s season opener and finished last season ranked 28th in the NHL at 17.0%.
But the lead didn’t last, and the second period turned sharply against LA. San Jose answered with three straight goals, starting with a power-play finish from Tyler Toffoli off a pass from 19-year-old rookie Ivar Stenberg, who collected his first career NHL point. Kiefer Sherwood and Nolan Allan added the next two, each getting behind Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg to push the Sharks ahead 3-1.
The Kings managed to close the gap before the second intermission. With Macklin Celebrini in the box for slashing Artemi Panarin, Quinton Byfield snapped a wrist shot home from the faceoff dot with 1.3 seconds left in the period, trimming the deficit to 3-2 and keeping Los Angeles within striking distance.
San Jose then restored its two-goal cushion early in the third when Igor Chernyshov split two Kings defenders and finished a breakaway with a backhand past Forsberg. Down 4-2 on the road, the Kings still found a way back.
Erik Haula scored his first goal in the Silver and Black to make it a one-goal game, and Panarin then ripped a one-timer past Yaroslav Askarov with five minutes left in regulation to tie it 4-4. From there, the game needed overtime.
LA controlled much of the extra frame, but Chernyshov ended it less than two minutes from the finish, beating Forsberg to the weak side for his second goal of the night and giving San Jose a second overtime win in as many games.
The Kings finished with the edge in shots, 35-25, won 53.1% of the faceoffs and went 2-for-2 on the power play. Still, the three-goal San Jose burst in the second period proved too big to erase.
Forsberg made his season debut in net for Los Angeles after taking over down the stretch and starting all four playoff games against Colorado. He allowed five goals on 25 shots, matching a total he reached only four times in 31 starts last season.
For first-year coach Peter Laviolette, the early takeaway is hard to miss: the top power-play unit showed promise, but defensive-zone play and goaltending remain the major issues as he looks for his first win behind the Kings bench.
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Kings Fans Have A New Reign Problem To Worry About
The Ontario Reigns latest meeting with Coachella Valley turned into a rough night at Toyota Arena, as the Firebirds pulled away for a 6-2 win. Ontario had managed to stay level after the first period, getting goals from Koehn Ziemmer and Jared Wright, but the game shifted once the middle frame settled in and the Firebirds began to control the pace.
For Kings fans keeping an eye on the organizations pipeline, it was the kind of result that cuts deeper than a single loss. Coachella Valley found extra offense from Jani Nyman and Jagger Firkus, and Ontario never found a way to answer once the game opened up, leaving another reminder that the Reign still have some work to do before the season gets where they want it. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Let Another Winnable Game Slip In A Familiar Way
A familiar kind of frustration followed the Kings out of San Jose, where they dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to the Sharks in a game that was there for the taking. Los Angeles got offense from multiple players and had enough push to stay in it, but the overall balance was off again, with the defense leaving too much open and the netminding under strain throughout the night.
Anton Forsberg was in goal for his first start of the season and made 20 saves, but the Kings still could not make the late stages feel secure. Igor Chernyshov was the difference for San Jose, and the way this one slipped away will sting because it was not some runaway loss so much as another winnable game that unraveled in the kind of familiar fashion the Kings have been trying to avoid. [Read more 🡒]
Sharks Young Core Just Showed Florida A Problem That Wont Quit
The Kings had the kind of game that usually ends with points in hand, and instead they watched San Jose leave with another overtime victory. Los Angeles spent much of the night in control, only to see the Sharks hang around, get a big night from Igor Chernyshov and turn a two-goal lead into a one-goal finish before the third period slipped away.
For the Kings, it was a familiar kind of frustration against a team that refused to fold. San Jose was outplayed for stretches, but the Sharks kept finding enough answers to stay in it, and their young core again gave them the sort of push that can make an opponent pay for even a brief lapse. For Los Angeles, the lesson was less about the standings than the missed chance to close out a game it had already seemed to solve. [Read more 🡒]