Kings stay on roll as Kempe scores short-handed winner
The Kings began a four-game East Coast road swing last week with perhaps their lowest point of the season.
They finished it with arguably their highest. So far anyway.
Adrian Kempe scored twice in the third period, including a short-handed go-ahead goal with 3:10 to play as the Kings rallied past the Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 on Sunday.
Los Angeles won its third straight following a blowout loss to Buffalo last week that threatened to send the Kings into a tailspin.
Instead, they responded by knocking off New Jersey, Boston and then the
PITTSBURGH »
Penguins, playing the role of spoiler on a night Pittsburgh honored franchise icon Jaromir Jagr, who had his No. 68 retired during a pregame ceremony.
“Pretty proud of the team, for sure,” Kings interim coach Jim Hiller said. “The last period looked like the first period in Jersey, which is when we really started getting ourselves going.”
Sidney Crosby scored his 31st goal of the season for Pittsburgh with a powerplay goal late in the first period but the Penguins let a chance to build momentum at the start of a pivotal four-game homestand slip away over the final 20 minutes.
Kempe tied it with 6:11 to play with a slap shot from the point that appeared to deflect off Pittsburgh’s Rickard Rakell to get past Tristan Jarry. Just over three minutes later Kempe gave the Kings the lead when he finished off a shorthanded two-on-one by ripping a wrist shot between Jarry’s legs.
“Pretty even game, but we played solid again,” Kempe said. “We got the two deserving points that maybe we didn’t get a couple weeks ago.”
Cam Talbot finished with 29 saves for Los Angeles, which has won five of six.
“We saw the resiliency yesterday (in Boston),” Talbot said. “We knew that even though we were down going into the third period that we could pull another one out tonight. That’s what we were able to do.”
THE SCORE
KINGS 2, PENGUINS 1
Up next: Blue Jackets at Kings, Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., BSW
SUMMARY
Kings Pittsburgh
First Period:
1, Pittsburgh, Crosby 31 (Rust, Karlsson), 18:43 (pp). Penalties: Smith, PIT (Tripping), 7:32. Dubois, LA (Slashing), 12:26. Dubois, LA (Roughing), 18:38.
Second Period:
None. Penalties: Letang, PIT (Holding), 1:39. Crosby, PIT (Hooking), 9:04. Laferriere, LA (Tripping), 12:44.
Third Period:
2, Kings, Kempe 18 (Doughty, Arvidsson), 13:49. 3, Kings, Kempe 19 (Kopitar), 16:50 (sh). Penalties: Laferriere, LA (Tripping), 5:01. Moore, LA (Delay of Game), 14:57.
Kings 10-13-10: 33. Pittsburgh 12-7-11: 30.
Shots on goal:
Power-play opportunities:
Pittsburgh 1 of 5.
Kings, Talbot 15-13-5 (30 shots29 saves). Pittsburgh, Jarry 14-17-4 (33-31).
18,422 (18,387). T: 2:27.
Jean Hebert, Michael Markovic. Linesmen: Ryan Jackson, Brad Kovachik.
Goalies:
A: Referees: 0 1 0 0 2 — 2 0 — 1
Kings 0 of 3.