In Los Angeles, the Carolina Hurricanes clipped the Kings, 6-5, after a none-round sills competition.
“They outplayed us from start to finish,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We just scored on every chance we had, basically. The game is just so hard when you’re in the box the whole game. We’re going to just trash it and move on. Thankfully, we get to play tomorrow (at the Anaheim Ducks).”
Jordan Martinook was credited with the deciding marker in the skills portion of the evening.
Frederik Andersen made 25 saves in the Canes win.
Anze Kopitar hit for a double in the loss for the Kings, his second came with 82 seconds left in regulation to force the extra session and skills.
Brent Burns staked the Canes to an early 1-0 lead in the first period.
Sebastian Aho scored off a shorthanded situation for a 2-0 lead to the Hurricanes at 6:41 of the first.
“There’s a lot of room out there in those situations, and he’s always looking to go,” Brind’Amour said of Aho. “We give him the green light when he’s got an opportunity, and he’s been good on the kill, for sure.”
Jesperi Kotkaniemi ballooned the lead to 3-0 at 13:28 before the Kings began to get their offense on track.
Drew Doughty scored at 18:27 of the first to trim the lead to 3-1.
Brendan Lemieux scored early in the middle frame to restore the three-goal lead to the Canes at 4-1.
Kopitar picked up the first of his double in the sixth minute of the second to claw back to 4-2 deficit.
Teuvo Teravainen scored to give the Canes a seemingly safe, 5-2, lead.
“It’s not the style we want to play,” Aho said. “Way too many penalties. Weird game. So much weird stuff happened there, but obviously, a win is a win.”
Trevor Moore and Vladislav Gavrikov scored to get the Kings within one at 5-4 before Kopitar tied late.
“Good resilience by us to come back in that game,” Los Angeles forward Trevor Moore said. “Obviously, we don’t want to be playing those high-scoring games. We want to play a little bit more low-event games, but we’ll take the point.”
Pheonix Copley made 14 saves in the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.