Doughty scores overtime winner
Defenseman’s goal 32 seconds into extra period gives Kings seventh win in a row.
Drew Doughty took matters into his own hands after the Kings let opportunities slip out of theirs early and late.
Ultimately, the Kings grabbed first place in the Western Conference.
For most of Thursday night, they were locked into a tie game with the Ottawa Senators despite missing a wheelbarrow full of chances in the opening 25 minutes.
Then came Doughty, who knocked the puck loose and took it down the left wing before looking off a pass and beating Senators goalie Mike Condon 32 seconds into overtime, giving the Kings a 4-3 victory.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a two-on-one for that long in my career with the
puck,” Doughty said. “I was looking to pass the entire time and I kind of just decided to throw my toe over it and I just tried to go five hole. It wasn’t the prettiest goal, but it went in and we won.”
It was a prolonged path to victory for the Kings, who gave up a score-tying goal by Ryan Dzingel only 10 seconds before the end of regulation after Condon had been pulled for an extra attacker. But the Kings are tops in the West after their 30th game.
“It means we’re going to have a target on our back the rest of the year,” Dustin Brown said. “We’re going to have to learn how to play with that.”
Brown noted that the Kings prevailed again thanks to another good goaltending performance, this one a 37-save effort by backup Darcy Kuemper, who improved to 5-0-2. The win appeared to come first in regulation when Brown’s deflection of Christian Folin’s point shot with 3:28 remaining in the third period gave the Kings the lead before Ottawa’s late heroics.
The Kings have won seven in a row, their longest winning streak since October 2015, however hard earned. The scored was tied at 2-2 going into the third period. Ottawa, which hadn’t scored in its previous two games, played its second game in two nights and was turnover-prone early. Still, the Senators tied the score on Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s goal at 8:08 of the second period after Derek Forbort turned the puck over trying to pass out of his zone.
Despite the early misses, the Kings appeared to grab the game on Alex Iafallo’s goal at the end of a nearly rink-long passing sequence, from Doughty to Brown to Iafallo, who beat Condon with a shot streaking down the left wing. The goal was only the second of the season for Iafallo, more of a playmaker who has created ample opportunities in his rookie season.
Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson gave Ottawa fits to start the game, and they produced the first goal with Pearson’s easy finish of Toffoli’s pass in the first period. Toffoli did most of the work with a move around Senators defenseman Ben Harpur.
Ottawa ended its scoreless streak at more than 154 minutes with Matt Duchene’s power-play goal late in the first period.
It was only the 11th power-play goal given up by the Kings’ top-ranked penalty-killing unit.
Etc. The Kings acquired defenseman Jordan Subban from the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for forward Nic Dowd in a trade announced after the game. Subban has played the last three seasons in the minors. He is the younger brother of Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban and Vegas Golden Knights goalie Malcom Subban. Dowd had one point in 16 games this season . ... Andy Andreoff was activated off injured reserve but did not play.