NEWARK, N.J. — The Kings won twice to start their five-game road trip but were unable to sustain that trend against the surging New Jersey Devils on Saturday.
Los Angeles managed only 13 shots – and one goal - against Jake Allen en route to a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Prudential Center.
Two nights ago on Long Island, Artemi Panarin scored twice and Brandt Clarke provided overtime heroics as the Kings downed the Islanders 3-2. Against the stingy Devils defense, only Scott Laughton could solve the Devils defense late in second period.
But New Jersey's Anthony Mantha tied the contest with 1:17 left in the second, defenseman Brett Pesce put New Jersey ahead at 8:08 of the third and Artemy Gritsyuk iced the win with an empty net goal. New Jersey has won three straight and five of its last six games - and on Friday the Devils acquired three-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck in trade from Winnipeg.
"It was a game in the third and we gave one up,'' Kings coach Peter Laviolette said.
The Kings are now 2-2-2 on the road and 2-5-2 overall this season. They weren't able to win in their first six outings before victories at Washington and on Long Island to start the trip.
Laviolette said his squad has to generate a more potent offensive approach, especially on the power play which failed twice against the Devils.
"We have to simplify it, get more pucks to the net,'' he said. "You do that, things break down and you can make passes. We’re too much on the exterior."
Laviolette didn't like his team's play in the second period when Devils outshot the Kings 14-3 and had numerous chances against backup Kings netmider Anton Forsberg.
“It seems like we’re on our heels,'' he added. "We have to be more aggressive in our mindset."
Defenseman Joel Edmundson said the contest against New Jersey was frustrating, especially the team's inability to generate enough in the middle period.
"We haven’t been playing good in the second period for most of the season so far,'' he said. "We need to get pucks deep. When we did get pucks into the O-zone it was kind of one and done. We didn’t wear them down. We made it way too easy."
Forsberg made several dynamic saves in the second period including two on Jack Hughes and another on Devils captain Nico Hischier to keep Los Angeles in the game. Forsberg finished with 23 saves to fall to 0-2-1 this season. He was 16-12-5 last season, helping the Kings reach the playoffs for the fifth-straight season.
Kings forward Trevor Lewis had high praise for Forsberg's effort.
"He was awesome,'' Lewis said. "He did it down the stretch last year. Bummer we couldn’t perform better."
Lewis echoed Edmundson and his coach with the need to fix the Kings' second-period malaise.
"For whatever reason we are playing slower in the second," he said. "We have to figure out how to fix that. That’s on us."
Next up for the Kings is a match against the Rangers on Monday at Madison Square Garden on Monday, followed by a trip-closing game at United Center in Chicago on Tuesday.
"It's cliche but we have to play good full 60s," Lewis said. "We have to put two whole games together, build on the really good hockey we know we can play."