In Los Angeles, Fabian Zetterlund was credited with the deciding goal on Monday night on penalties to give the San Jose Sharks a 4-3 win over the Kings.
Kaapo Kahkonen made 44 saves in the win.
“You don’t want to give up that many shots,” San Jose coach David Quinn said. “Our [defensive]-zone coverage wasn’t great tonight and we’ve got to tighten some things up. … But we’ve just got to find ways to win, and we did tonight.”
The Sharks have won two straight, and improved to 12-31-4.
San Jose held a 3-2 lead with less than two minutes left on the regulation clock before Drew Doughty scored at 18:02 to tie the game, 3-3, and force extra time, which solved nothing.
“Unfortunate the way the third goal went in for them, and we survived overtime,” Quinn said. “Just a real gutsy win coming in here, playing the way we did.”
The Sharks took a 2-0 lead in the game.
Zetterlund scored at 7:46 of the middle frame on a delayed penalty.
William Eklund extended the advantage to 2-0 midway through the second period.
Eklund had gone 17 games between goals since scoring the winner in a 2-1 victory against the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 12.
“He worked so hard for it, and probably he could shoot some more pucks in the games before, but he has a good shot,” Zetterlund said.
The Kings dropped to 22-13-9, and have lost 11 of their last 13 marches,.
“I wouldn’t say the season’s slipping away, but I would say there is concern and there is some frustration, definitely frustration,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said. “I’ll reiterate three should be plenty for us right now. It’s not often we get three or four the way we’re scoring. … We’re chasing it both ways. We tried to fix the offense and there’s something going wrong with the defense, and vice versa.”
LA’s Trevor Moore trimmed the deficit to 2-1 at 17:06 of the second.
Quinton Byfield tied the game, 2-2, with 93 seconds gone in the third period.
“I thought they needed a little more energy, and naturally [Byfield’s] been there before and done that for that line, so that’s why that change was made,” McLellan said.
San Jose reclaimed the lead at 6:17 of the third when Justin Bailey scored off a breakaway.
David Rittich made 27 saves in the loss.
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