Kings give up late lead, fall in overtime to Blues for fourth consecutive loss
Mike Hoffman made plays on both ends of the ice to help the St. Louis Blues extend their winning streak to four games.
The center scored 90 seconds into overtime Friday night to give the Blues a 3-2 victory over the Kings at Staples Center. Late in regulation, Hoffman chased down the puck in the defensive zone with the goalie pulled. St. Louis ended up converting with the extra skater as David Perron scored the tying goal.
“That’s a huge play by him,“ Blues coach Craig Berube said of Hoffman’s save. “He then made another nice play in the offensive zone.“
Hoffman was able to beat the Kings’ Anze Kopitar to the puck to prevent an empty-net goal. Perron got a pass from Ryan O’Reilly in the neutral zone and skated into the offensive zone before firing a shot past Cal Petersen with 44 seconds remaining in regulation for his second goal of the game.
It was an NHL-leading seventh goal for St. Louis (14-8-2) when it is playing six-on-five.
“Obviously, backchecking is key there. I just tried to get on my horse and whack the puck back out through the neutral zone,“ Hoffman said. “Perron made a good play, came down and had a good shot.”
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In overtime, Hoffman ripped a slap shot from the right faceoff circle after getting a feed from Torey Krug for his seventh goal of the season.
Perron has nine goals this year and extended his point streak to five games (three goals, three assists). Ville Husso stopped 28 shots.
Jeff Carter and Dustin Brown scored for the Kings (9-8-5), who have lost four in a row following a six-game winning streak. Petersen made 19 saves.
“To give a goal up late, I mean, it’s a hockey game and stuff like that happens,“ Brown said. “During the six-game winning streak, we squeaked out a couple games where bounces went our way. It’s a good lesson to learn — you’re gonna have to play a full 60 [minutes] to get out of this little skid we’re in.”
Highlights from the Kings’ 3-2 overtime loss to the visiting St. Louis Blues on Friday night.
Perron opened the scoring 2:08 into the first period on the power play with a snap shot from the middle of the offensive zone.
The Kings evened it 1 when Carter got behind the Blues’ defense, took a pass from Andreas Athanasiou and put in a backhand in front with 3:19 remaining in the second. It was Carter’s fifth goal of the season and second in four games.
Brown scored 37 seconds into the third for his team-leading 12th goal of the season and sixth on the power play to put the Kings in front 2-1. Kopitar threaded a cross-ice pass to Brown, who put in a rebound after Husso made a pad save on his initial shot.
The Blues are the first team in the NHL to reach 10 road wins this season. They also set a franchise mark by doing it in only 12 games, surpassing the previous mark of 15 that had been done three times.
The Blues have momentum on their power play after it struggled for most of the season. Perron’s first-period goal was St. Louis’ fourth straight with the man advantage after it converted on all three chances in a 3-2 win at Anaheim on Wednesday.
St. Louis had only eight power-play goals and was 28th in the NHL in its first 21 games but has scored five goals over the past three games.
The Kings also scored on the power play in three straight games and are four for 12 over that stretch.
The Calgary Flames fired coach Geoff Ward and replaced him with Darryl Sutter, who will lead the team for the second time.
Blues center Brayden Schenn had the second assist on Perron’s goal to extend his point streak to four games (two goals, two assists).
Kings center Rasmus Kupari made his NHL debut. The 21-year-old Finnish forward, who was the team’s first-round pick (20th overall) in the NHL draft, centered the third line. He was promoted from the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate after scoring two goals and notching nine points in eight games. Kopitar has four assists in the last three games and is tied for fifth in the NHL with 21.
The teams meet again Saturday. The Blues are 2-1 this season in the second game of back-to-backs, while the Kings are 1-0-1.
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