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Kings come up short against Lightning

January 19, 2022, 8:17 PM ET [5 Comments]
Ben Shelley
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
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The Los Angeles Kings came up short against the Tampa Bay Lightning yesterday, falling 6-4.


In what was a very slow opening frame, Victor Hedman opened the scoring for the Lightning, when Olli Maatta couldn’t handle a pass at the blue line and Hedman was able to go down on a breakaway and beat Cal Petersen. Shots remained just 4-4 at the end of the period, with the Lightning up 1-0.

Things really picked up around the midway point of the second period, however, as Blake Lizotte made a great effort to take the puck off Brayden Point on the forecheck, then head towards the net and roof a puck over Andrei Vasilevskiy. The Kings then took the lead while shorthanded, as Mikhail Sergachev committed a brutal turnover to Alex Iafallo, who beat an unprepared Vasilevskiy. However, later on that same Lightning power play, Nikita Kucherov blasted a one-timer past Petersen to tie the game.

Then only about 1:30 later, the Kings surrendered a shorthanded goal of their own. Mathieu Joseph made an excellent play to draw in several opponents, before dishing it to an open Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who deked out Petersen to score. Los Angeles would then tie the game on that same power play though, as Arthur Kaliyev’s pass went in off Hedman’s stick.

After some downtime without a goal in the third period, the Lightning took the lead off a nice shot from Hedman. Then a little later, Joseph took a great pass from Ryan McDonagh to bury a one-timer into the open net to put Tampa Bay up 5-3. Steven Stamkos added an empty net goal and while Phillip Danault got one back in the final minutes, the Lightning took a 6-4 win.

While the Kings did manage 36 shots compared the Tampa Bay’s 25 shots, it was a really sloppy effort defensively. The Kings were committing way too many turnovers and consistently left players open in great spots. The Lightning certainly have a dynamic forward group but Los Angeles needs to be much better in their own end.

The Kings also got burned by another shorthanded goal, making that six shorthanded goals against this season.

Los Angeles’ next game comes tomorrow against the Colorado Avalanche.



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