The Los Angeles Kings (23-17-14) pushed the Carolina Hurricanes (34-15-6) to the limit Sunday afternoon, but Sebestain Aho’s overtime winner sealed a disappointing 3-2 loss for the Kings at Lenovo Center in a winnable game.
Despite being outshot 34-13, the Kings got excellent goaltending from Anton Forsberg to force extra time before Carolina closed it out in overtime.
Carolina Strikes First
Carolina opened the scoring midway through the first period on the power play, when Jordan Staal scored off the nice feed from Andrei Svechnikov to make it 1-0. The Canes were the better team early on, generating high-quality scoring chances and converting them, while the Kings couldn’t find the net despite creating good chances.
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Los Angeles started to settle as the period came to an end, generating several chances off the rush, but couldn’t score, ending intermission trailing by one.
In other news, though, early in the period, the Kings lost defenseman Mikey Anderson with an upper-body injury and did not return, forcing the Kings to play the remainder of the contest with five defenseman.
Mikey Anderson Exits Hurricanes Game with Upper-Body Injury
Forsberg Holds the Line in Scoreless Second
The second period and most of the regulation belonged to Anton Forsberg, who turned aside several of the Hurricanes’ chances, including several point-blank shots very close to going into the net.
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Drew Doughty was also great in the sequence where the Hurricanes were looking to extend their lead on a 2-on-1 rush play, but Doughty sprinted down the ice and blocked the shot from behind to keep the score 1-0.
With the defense keeping them in the game, the Kings’ offense struggled to generate offense and help Forsberg, continually getting turned away by the Hurricanes or missing easy shots on rush plays.
Helenius and Byfield Bring Kings Back
The game opened up in the third period, with it still being very winnable for the Kings, trailing 1-0. Carolina, though, regained the lead at the 7:03 mark when Alexander Nikishin fired a shot past Forsberg to make it 2–0.
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Los Angeles converted 24 seconds later, with Samuel Helenius finishing a play off a Carolina turnover to score his third goal of the season and give Los Angeles its first goal of the game.
Shortly, though, after scoring, Helenius exited the game and headed to the locker room with about six minutes left in regulation, and didn’t return for the rest of the game. No update has been given yet on what happened, but a live update will come shortly after more information is provided.
A couple of minutes later, at the 3:11 mark, Quinton Byfield tied the game for Los Angeles, restoring the two-goal deficit from earlier in regulation. The goal looked to have given the Kings a lot of momentum after trailing throughout the entire match and going scoreless for 40 minutes.
No team was able to score in the last two minutes of regulation after
Aho Ends It in Overtime
Carolina refused to let this game slip away after letting the game get close late. Aho delivered the game-winner at the 3:35 mark of overtime after faking a pass to score down the middle of the lane under Forsberg to win it for Carolina.
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Forsberg finished with 31 saves in a strong performance, while the Kings’ power play struggled, going 0-for-2 on the night. Los Angeles was solid in the faceoff battle, matching the Hurricanes (50%), and was more physical than Carolina with 25 hits and 25 blocked shots.
Despite the loss, give credit to Los Angeles, which was battling with physicality and came back from behind to make it a game before coming up just short in overtime. Now, this finally caps off the Kings’ road trip, ending it 3-1-1, 7 of 10 points total, and currently fourth in the Pacific Division, one point behind the Seattle Kraken.
The Kings’ next game will be on Wednesday against the Seattle Kraken at 7:00 P.M. PT, in a Western Conference showdown for potentially the third seed in the division.
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