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The Los Angeles Kings came up short against the Tampa Bay Lightning tonight, falling 3-2 in overtime.
Mikey Anderson was out with a non-COVID illness and with Alex Edler injured, both Olli Maatta and Christian Wolanin entered the lineup.
Yet again, the Kings got off to a good start in the first period, with the shots 12-3 in their favour at one point (though Lightning did manage some close chances). Drew Doughty opened the scoring on a power play, after the puck popped out to him and he stepped into a slapshot, which beat Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Lightning would manage to respond though, as Victor Hedman unleashed a great one-timer from the point to tie it. Tampa Bay then almost took the lead just before intermission, but Jonathan Quick made an excellent save on Ondrej Palat to keep the game at 1-1 after 20 minutes.
The Kings took back the lead early in the second period, as Matt Roy’s point shot went in off Viktor Arvidsson to put the Kings up 2-1. The Lightning really started to take back momentum after that though and following some pressure from Tampa Bay, eventually the goals off point shots kept coming, with Taylor Raddysh deflecting Jan Rutta’s shot to tie the game once again.
The third period was certainly the most even frame but after neither team was able to break the tie, we went to overtime.
The extra frame was one of the more entertaining periods of overtime I’ve seen in a while, with odd-man rushes going back and forth. After the Kings couldn’t convert on some excellent chances, Viktor Arvidsson was tripped in Tampa Bay’s end and the rush went the other way, with Mathieu Joseph picking up the overtime winner.
It was an unfortunate end to the game and the missed call on Arvidsson was pretty rough, but the Kings played a pretty strong game overall. They started well, let the momentum get away from them a bit, but then had a decent third period and got some great opportunities in overtime.
It’s worth noting that Andreas Athanasiou left the game with an injury and did not return, so we’ll see what the update is.
The Kings' next game comes on Thursday against the Florida Panthers.
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OTHER ARTICLES FROM DECEMBER
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Jonathan Quick picks up shutout as Kings blank Stars
Kings’ situation in net playing out differently than expected
Kings snap Wild's streak with 2-1 win 
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