Kings Grab 4-3 OT Win Doing Their Darnedest
- Updated: October 21, 2016
We needed that one for sure.
The Kings, trying its darnedest to not be the first team in LA franchise history to lose its first four games of the season, pulled out a 4-3 OT victory against the Dallas Stars Thursday at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. It didn’t come easy. And one thing that helped was having a solid 2nd period, something the team has struggled to do so far this season. The LA team was actually strong, skating fast, checking often and keeping up with a feisty and arguably dirty Stars team.
Dowd reacts to number 1. (Photo: NHL.com Video)
With goaltender Jonathan Quick out of the lineup for up to three months after a non-surgical procedure on his groin, the nod this game went to 34-year-old veteran goalie Peter Budaj, who had his first season start after watching his cohort Jeff Zatkoff cough up three loses and a .839 save percentage.
Budaj, who played the 3rd period in the Kings 6-3 loss versus Minnesota on Tuesday, looked rusty on his start, making 17 saves on 20 shots and allowing a soft goal after misfiring a puck behind his own net in the first period.
The game started off fast, with action moving end to end in a style that may best suit the Stars team. After a Stars penalty, the Kings powerplay connected with a picture perfect play. Picture this: at 8:18, Tanner Pearson kicks the puck out of the boards, Dustin Brown picks it up, moves cross ice in front of the opponent’s net before passing over to Tom Gilbert who crosses it back to Nic Dowd who glides one way as the Stars’ goalie Kari Lehtonen slides another, putting the puck in for his first goal of his NHL career. Pretty stuff. Let’s see that again.
In a seesaw battle that never had a team claim a 2-goal lead, and where the Kings never trailed, the Stars would grab the next goal at 11:40. After Budaj mishandled the puck behind his net, Jason Spezza grabbed it and sent it to Radek Faksa in front. As Budaj struggled to get back into the net, the puck beat him there. Let’s never see that again.
Early in the second period the Kings took the lead on a wrist shot by Jeff Carter, who was skating up the middle and received a flawless set up from Pearson. After a holding penalty by Dwight King, the Stars capitalized when Jamie Benn (from John Klingberg and Tyler Seguin) fired a shot over Budaj’s shoulder, short side top shelf, which according to Fox Sports West TV announcer Jimmy Fox is the latest favorite location of many shots this season.
Some of the arguably dirty play came in the second when scuffles broke out, most likely in retaliation for Kings’ defenseman Brayden McNabb’s hard hit on Stars left wing Patrick Sharp. At one point McNabb was being punched in a fight where he was already laying flat on his back, a definite no-no in the unwritten hockey rule book. Earlier Stars’ Antoine Roussel was found punching McNabb in the back, which resulted in a 4-minute Kings powerplay. Though they didn’t score on the powerplay (a goal was waved off due to Pearson’s interfering with the goalie), the period saw solid play by the 2nd-period-slumping Kings.
The LA team even found a way to lead after two. At 19:33, Pearson, with assist from Devin Setoguchi and Carter, came streaking down the right side, fired one weak shot, but then got his own rebound and put it in down low.
The third period, high energy with suspense looming over the potential first win, Los Angeles outshot Dallas 11 – 5, at one point tallying double the amount of total shots 36-18 for the game. Then came the empty net at 17:20. In only took 23 seconds after pulling Lehtonen before Spezza took a pass from Seguin and Dan Hamhuis, and then fired a shot over the blocker of an unsuspecting Budaj who may have been too deep in the crease.
Hello overtime, something that was kind to the Kings last year, as they went 14-6. After not having control of the puck for the first minute, the Kings’ Tyler Toffoli crossed the blue line barely ahead of a streaking Pearson, who went to the front of the opponents net. Toffoli sent a pass back to Alec Martinez trailing the play, and he fired it past a screened-out Lehtonen.
Martinez takes the winning shot in OT to give Kings 4-3 win. (Photo: NHL.com Video)
After the game, Martinez told LA Kings Insider Jon Rosen, “This was a hard-fought game, it was really emotional, and there was a little bit of everything in terms of situations. I think that we can take the positive. I think this was probably the best 60-plus game that we’ve played all year, and I think the emotion was a big part that maybe was missing the first couple, and it was there tonight.”
Said LA coach Darryl Sutter to the Kings Insider, “It’s pretty much the way we’ve played other than one period this season. Just got a break to win.”
Either way you look at it, this was a game the Kings needed to have a solid 2nd period and a game they needed to win … for sure. The Kings – improving to 1-3 in the standings – next face the Vancouver Canucks at 7 p.m., Saturday, October 22 at the Staples Center.
First victory lap. (Photo: Twitter, Patrick O’Neal)
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