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The Los Angeles Kings picked up their second road win in a row tonight, defeating the Detroit Red Wings 5-4 in overtime.
Carl Grundstrom re-entered the lineup in place of Arthur Kaliyev, while Alex Edler was hit with a puck in warmups and Sean Walker suited up for Los Angeles as a result. Jonathan Quick got the start, while Olli Maatta was in the Red Wings’ lineup, after spending the past two seasons with the Kings.
Just five minutes into the game, Sean Durzi had the puck taken off him in the offensive zone and too many players were caught deep in Detroit’s end, resulting in the Red Wings going down the other way on a 2-on-1, and Adam Erne wristing a shot past Jonathan Quick. Just 19 seconds later though, Gabriel Vilardi got the puck on an entry and used the defenseman as a screen to beat Ville Husso, tying the game right away. The Kings sustained a bit of pressure after that but then proceeded to give up some good chances to Detroit but later in the frame, Kevin Fiala made a nice pass on a rush to Adrian Kempe on the wing, who beat Husso to give Los Angeles the lead.
The Red Wins generated more shots in the first half of the second frame and about midway through the period, Dominik Kubalik got the puck to David Perron off a broken rush and Perron one-timed a shot past Quick to tie the game. Later in the frame though, just after the Kings couldn’t capitalize on a power play, Trevor Moore beat a defenseman down the wing and put a great pass out front to Phillip Danault, who beat Husso to reinstate the Kings’ lead. After a competitive frame, the Kings took the 3-2 lead into the second intermission.
It was a fairly even first half of the third period, with the teams exchanging some chances. After the Kings couldn’t capitalize on their power play midway through the frame, shortly after, Detroit had a man advantage of their own and David Perron ripped a shot past Quick for his second goal of the game. However, only a few minutes later, Husso made an initial save but wasn’t able to fully freeze the puck and before any defender could clear it, Anze Kopitar dove towards the net to poke the puck across the line. The Kings did a great job preventing chances after taking back the lead and actually continued to press for chances – and then it looked like they were about to ice it.
After Detroit pulled the goalie, Viktor Arvidsson had an empty net to shoot at but didn’t know anyone was behind him, so he took an extra second before getting a shot off. The problem was, Dylan Larkin was in fact coming back and took the puck off of Arvidsson before he could shoot. Then shortly after, Detroit sustained pressure in the Kings’ end and Oskar Sundqvist tied the game with 40 seconds left. It was a pretty brutal sequence and reminded me a bit of the infamous Patrik Stefan miss, though obviously nowhere near as dramatic. The game went to overtime as a result.
Luckily for Arvidsson, in overtime, the Kings got a 2-on-1 and Phillip Danault tried to complete a pass and while it was broken up by Filip Hronek, the puck ended up banking off the defender and in, resulting in a 5-4 win.
It was a pretty even matchup throughout pretty much the entire night and was just a competitive game overall. The Kings were generating offense (though they did go 0-for-4 on the power play) but weren’t consistently giving up a ton of great chances and outshot the Kraken 36-33 overall.
Obviously, the Arvidsson miss and goal against that followed was a pretty ridiculous moment but the Kings still got their two points and I guess no harm, no foul. It’s a huge win for the team to get back to .500, especially with some tough competition coming up.
Los Angeles will be right back in action tomorrow night, as their road trip continues against the Nashville Predators.
OTHER ARTICLES FROM OCTOBER
Kings announce opening night roster
Late goal sinks Kings in opening night loss to Golden Knights
Brandt Clarke makes NHL debut in Kings' 4-1 loss to Kraken
Kings pick up first win of season in Kevin Fiala's return to Minnesota 
Los Angeles Kings Blogger • 
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