Fresh off of a record-breaking win over the Canadiens on Thursday, the Kings were back in action and looking to extend their road winning streak. After a quiet opening period to begin the contest, Adrian Kempe (9) and Vladislav Gavrikov (3) each scored goals in the second period to give Los Angeles the momentum heading into the final frame. However, the Islanders struck back as Anders Lee knocked in 2 goals of his own to erase the lead and send the game into overtime. With the perfect road record on the line for the Kings, Jean-Gabriel Pageau delivered the dagger just 13 seconds into the extra period and gave New York a dramatic comeback win. After a strong start, it was a disappointing way to drop the game and suffer the first road loss of the 2023 season.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Kings allow rare comeback victory
Prior to Saturday night’s comeback win for the Islanders, they had not recorded a win all season in which they headed into the third period as the trailing team. On the other side of things, the Kings had gone 14 games in a row without losing a game in which they had the lead after 2 periods of play.
Los Angeles let Anders Lee score 2 goals in the third period to erase their lead and force overtime. Once the overtime session began, it took only 13 seconds for Jean-Gabriel Pageau to score his first goal in 14 home games this season. It was all that the Islanders needed to seal the comeback and send the Kings away with a bad taste in their mouths. After a spotless first two periods of play from goalie Cam Talbot, he finished on a rough note. Los Angeles will look to get back to their previous success rate at holding the lead late in games, and hopefully, there will not be any more blown leads anytime soon.
Kevin Fiala delivers another multi-point effort
Despite the Kings’ tough loss, Kevin Fiala made sure that he was doing all he could to help the squad end up on the right side of things. For the second consecutive game, he was able to record a multi-point performance (his seventh of the season). With his 2 assists in the second period, he brought his season total up to 19.
He leads the team in the assist category and has been one of the bright spots on the Kings’ roster thus far. Fiala will have to continue to bring his A-game if Los Angeles wants to right the ship quickly and continue to get off to a hot start.
Cam Talbot falls just short of history, allows 3 late goals in loss
With the Kings up 2-0 after two periods of play and needing to hold on for just one more period, things were looking promising for goalie Cam Talbot. After the win against the Canadiens, he tied Glenn Hall for the longest season-opening road win streak by a goalie in NHL history. With a win on Saturday night, he would have stood alone as the only goalie to ever start off 10-0-0 on the road ever. Unfortunately, he allowed three goals in the final 20:13 of the game to give away the lead and suffer his first road loss of the season.
His 27 saves did not end up being enough to get the job done, as he was ultimately outdueled by Ilya Sorokin (34 saves). After the game, Kings’ coach Todd McLellan spoke on the loss and the snapped road winning streak.
“We didn’t come in and say we’ve got to get to 12 here after winning 11 in Montreal,” he said. “We just worry about our game. It’s as simple as that.”
McLellan and his squad will be just fine if they continue to move forward with that mindset and ignore any outside noise regarding records or streaks. Their next opportunity to get back in the win column will come on Sunday afternoon as part of a New York back-to-back against the Rangers. The Kings will certainly have their work cut out for them, as the Rangers currently sit in first place in the Metropolitan Division (18-6-1).
The game is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. PT.
