After a short two-game road trip, the Pittsburgh Penguins (13-14-5) returned home to host the Los Angeles Kings (18-9-3) on Tuesday night. The Kings were in the midst of their fourth game of a seven-game road trip, having started 2-1-0. The Penguins, meanwhile, went 1-1-0 on their trip.
Alex Nedeljkovic got his first start since the 4-2 loss to the New York Rangers 11 days ago. Darcy Kuemper started between the pipes for the Kings.
Game Recap
The game opened with a fiery Kings team jumping out to a 1-0 lead just 33 seconds in. Anze Kopitar fed a beautiful pass to Adrian Kempe, who buried the shot to give Los Angeles the early advantage. Despite being outplayed in the first six minutes, the Penguins settled into the game and took control for much of the remaining 15 minutes. Still, they found themselves trailing 1-0 heading into the first intermission, with both teams finishing the period tied at 10 shots apiece.
The second period started much better for the Penguins. With a bit of puck luck, Michael Bunting found Evgeni Malkin, who tied the game at 6:22. However, the Kings regained the lead at 11:38 with an incredible transition play. Alex Turcotte collected the puck off the boards in his own zone, skated it into the Penguins’ zone, and roofed a shot over Nedeljkovic’s glove to make it 2-1. Despite the Penguins outshooting the Kings 12-10 in the period, neither team added another goal before the second intermission.
The third period saw the Penguins press hard to find the equalizer. After being completely shut down by Kuemper’s spectacular play, the Penguins finally tied the game when Matt Grzelcyk scored his first goal in a Penguins sweater. With the game knotted at 2-2, Pittsburgh forced overtime. The Kings outshot the Penguins 11-8 in the third.
In overtime, Rickard Rakell was the hero for Pittsburgh with the only shot of the extra frame at 1:44, tipping the puck perfectly into the net.
Next Up
Both teams are back in action on Thursday night. The Penguins will travel to Nashville to face Steven Stamkos and the Predators, while the Kings head to Eastern Pennsylvania to take on Matvei Michkov and the Philadelphia Flyers.
