Red Hot Kings Go OT Again To Win Third Straight
- Updated: December 24, 2018
(The Los Angeles Kings’ Tyler Toffoli fires the game-winning goal in overtime Sunday past the Vegas Golden Knights’ goaltender Marc-André Fleury. Photo courtesy of David Becker/NHLI via Getty Images.)
What a game! For the second day in a row, the red hot Los Angeles Kings won on the road in sudden death overtime. LA’s latest exciting victory came Sunday against the Vegas Golden Knights in front of 18,225 fans at T-Mobile Arena. Many of the locals screamed “Beat LA” in the final minutes as the Kings won, 4-3.
Tyler Toffoli netted the game-winner, after receiving a stretch pass from Oscar Fantenberg who had launched the puck from way back near the Las Vegas Strip. Toffoli grabbed the pass at the Knights’ blue line, raced in all alone, and fired the puck right by Vegas’ goalie Marc-André Fleury. Out of frustration, Fleury then broke his goalie stick in half by whacking it hard against a goal post. Here is the replay:
(Footage courtesy of NHL.)
The Kings had won the day before in OT when Ilya Kovalchuk buried the winning goal against the Sharks in San Jose. In all, LA has won three consecutive games, and only two NHL teams currently possess longer winning streaks. The Kings have gone 5-4-2 in their past 11 games. That is a winning record, folks.
However, the hot streak might be too little too late. The NHL now heads into its Christmas break as the season approaches its halfway mark. Of the league’s 31 teams, only the Chicago Blackhawks have a worse record than do the Kings. LA’s winning percentage of .419 barely edges Chicago’s .410. The Kings have a long long way to go to climb out of the enormous hole that they have dug for themselves during the first half of the season. I mean, as holes go, the Kings’ is the size of the Grand Canyon.
How deep is that hole? That hole is so deep that even after a three-game winning streak and playing above .500 for the past 11 games, the Kings have barely climbed over one opponent. Furthermore, they remain more than 50 percentage points behind the next worst team in their conference, the St. Louis Blues. That is how deep it is.
However, I must mention something. Perhaps the Kings were playing possum. Perhaps LA has now started what will continue after the break and into the new year as a huge long hot streak that continues into the playoffs. Hey, the Anaheim Ducks engineered a similar phenomenon only three years ago. Remember? At the Christmas break of the 2015-16 season, Anaheim circled the drain of the Western Conference standings. However, the Ducks roared back as if they were fired out of a canon. They went on a gigantic hot streak. Anaheim quickly moved up the standings, and into the playoff race. The Ducks even won the division title that season. Imagine that. So, Kings fans, this hockey writer says do not give up just yet.
Incidentally, as also a Ducks fan, I am absolutely loving that the Kings have beaten Pacific Division teams battling with Anaheim in the standings. Take THAT, Sharks and Knights! Too bad LA couldn’t have beaten each of those foes during regulation. Oh well.
Speaking of regulation, the Kings reached overtime Sunday behind goals from Michael Amadio, Alex Iafallo, and Jeff Carter. Meanwhile, Tomáš Nosek, Reilly Smith, and Ryan Reaves scored for Vegas. But, never mind all of those. Let us watch Toffoli’s breakaway goal one more time:
Because the Kings had played Saturday, LA rested Jonathan Quick in favor of rookie backup goalie Cal Petersen. The 24-year-old from Iowa recorded his fifth victory to tie for the team lead. The Knights also played on Saturday, but elected to start Fleury on both ends of the back-to-back.
The red hot Kings will look to extend their winning streak to four when they host the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday. Until then, Go Kings Go !!
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