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This was a game that neither team wanted to take over.
The Los Angeles Kings led three different times against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday and consequently gave up the lead each time before Drew Doughty gave the Kings a 4-3 win in overtime.
L.A’s seventh win in a row was not pretty, but the two points is all that matters in the end.
“I didn’t think it was our best game tonight,… said John Stevens after the game. “Ottawa had come in, they had played last night, and in a stretch that they hadn’t had a lot of success so we knew that probably made them a really dangerous team.…
“You’ve got to be tough on the walls. You’ve got to be able to take contact. You’ve got to be able to take on plays, and pass under pressure and I thought we did that well at times, and at times we didn’t.…
Scoring started late in the first period when Tyler Toffoli deked out the Senator defenseman at the offensive blueline and drove to the net. He then found Tanner Pearson in front to get the easy tap in goal to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.
Two minutes later, with Ottawa on the power play, Erik Karlsson’s shot was stopped by Darcy Kuemper but the long rebound was put past him by Matt Duchene to tie the game at one.
Five minutes into the second period, Alex Iafallo broke the tie when he came into the Senators zone with speed and fired a shot past Mike Condon before Ottawa could react to return the Kings one goal lead.
However, the Kings gave that goal right back three minutes later when Ben Harpur took a shot from the point and the rebound found Jean-Gabriel Pageau alone in front of Kuemper. He made a nice spin-o-rama shot to tie the game at two.
The scored remained tied late into the third period when Dustin Brown continued his 2017-18 heroics and scored his 12th goal of the season to give the Kings the 3-2 advantage with two and a half minutes left. Brown’s goal was his seventh third period goal which ties him with Nikita Kucherov for sixth in the NHL with the most in that period.
With the seconds ticking down in regulation, and the Kings dead tired from not being able to clear the zone, Ryan Dzingel was able to jam in a garbage goal with 9.2 seconds left to tie the game with the extra attacker.
In a back and forth game like this one, overtime didn’t take long. Drew Doughty collected the puck in his own zone and created a two-on-one with Brown where Doughty elected to shoot which beat Condon to end the game 32 seconds into the extra period.
“You know, you don’t like giving up a lead late like that and Darcy [Kuemper] played a heck of a game,… explained Stevens. “It’s interesting in overtime, I think a lot of times in overtime situations, good defensive play leads to an offensive play.…
“I think that’s the case with us and I think the guys on the ice are obviously our best offensive players, but they’re our best defensive players and end up with the puck on an odd man rush.… ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After the game the Kings announced that they have traded Nic Dowd to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Jordan Subban.
Subban, the younger brother of P.K. and Malcolm, was drafted in the fourth round (115th overall) by the Canucks in the 2013 NHL Entry draft. This season he has no goals and five points in 16 games with the AHL Utica Comets.
During the 22-year-old’s season last year he had 16 goals and 36 points.
It is expected that Subban will be playing with the AHL’s Ontario Reign.
In an effort to shore up the bottom six forwards by trading for Jussi Jokinen and Torrey Mitchell, Nic Dowd’s roster spot with the Kings was in peril.
The 27-year-old has one point in 16 games with a -3+/- and has lost the favor of coach John Stevens to be put out in critical defensive situations.
This trade also frees up a roster spot as the Kings filled up their 23-player active roster when they traded for Mitchell and Marian Gaborik came back.
Coming up next, the Kings welcome the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. Carolina lost a hard fought game in San Jose on Thursday 5-4 in a shootout and have lost four of their last five games. Then L.A. doesn’t play again until Tuesday where they travel to New Jersey to take on the Devils.