Campbell does part but is not enough
Goaltender is solid and helps Kings earn a point despite offense being held in check.
WINNIPEG, Canada — The career resurgence of Jack Campbell continues to be a great story. Unfortunately, on this night, the Kings couldn’t give it legs.
They were exhausted and they knew it. And there was little hiding it Tuesday. They entered one of the NHL’s more imposing venues, against another hard-charging opponent, for the second straight night and barely touched the puck for the final 30-plus minutes.
“We knew it was going to be tough, and it was,” Anze Kopitar said.
Campbell’s 36 saves on 38 shots, behind a collective veteran effort, got the Kings one point in the standings in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets at Bell MTS Place. The Kings were outshot 15-2 in the third period and overtime, and succumbed on Kyle Connor’s goal 97 seconds into three-
on-three play seconds after Tyler Toffoli struck the post at the other end.
“Jack played fantastic,” said Kopitar, who reached a career high with his 82nd point. “He gave us a chance to win, obviously, more than just a chance to win. I mean, he stood on his head that second period. I’m sure it wasn’t easy on him with all the penalty kills that we had and they had us in our zone quite a bit, so he played outstanding.”
Connor also scored in the second period and those were the only pucks the Jets got past Campbell in their franchise-record 44th win. They accomplished it without 43-goal scorer Patrik Laine, who left because of a lower-body injury early in the second period when he blocked Alec Martinez’s shot.
Campbell stopped Laine on Winnipeg’s second shot. He made 14 saves in the third period.
Handed the backup role when Darcy Kuemper got traded, Campbell is enjoying the ride. He is still without a regulation loss at 1-0-2 after he dueled with Winnipeg’s Eric Comrie, a Canadian who moved to Newport Beach at 9 and played youth hockey for the LA Selects.
“It was pretty fun,” Campbell said. “It’s fun to come into this building in a huge game of the season and have the trust of the coaches. Winnipeg’s a heck of a team. We’ll never say we’re satisfied with one point, but the guys battled super hard. You saw how many blocks we had in the game. To get a point is pretty huge.”
The Kings got it without Trevor Lewis because of his upper-body injury suffered Monday, and it’s unclear how long he’ll be out.
“In terms of a timeline, I don’t know yet,” coach John Stevens said. “I wouldn’t say it’s long, long-term.”
Derek Forbort had seven of the Kings’ 23 blocked shots and, along with Drew Doughty and Nate Thompson, played more than four minutes shorthanded. Kopitar did his usual MVP-like work at both ends of the ice and got an assist when he waited a beat on a two on one and quickly zipped the puck to Dustin Brown for Brown’s 23rd goal, his most since he scored 28 seven seasons ago.
“I thought our goalie gave us a chance tonight, I thought our defense played really hard and I thought our veteran leaders were a big reason we got a point,” Stevens said. “We need a lot more from a lot more guys.”