Penalties bury Kings in overtime loss to Sharks

LOS ANGELES — For a team that was missing three regular penalty killers, it was imperative for the Kings to stay out of the penalty box when facing a San Jose Sharks team that features high-end talent on the power play. 

The Kings were missing Anze Kopitar, Joel Armia, Trevor Moore and Corey Perry in Wednesday night’s bout against their Northern California rivals, with all but Perry being frequent penalty killers. Limiting the Sharks’ chances to go on the power play was going to be a key for the Kings to attempt to maintain 19-year-old wonderkid Macklin Celebrini.

Things did not go according to plan and the Kings gave the Sharks four power play opportunities, in which they gave up a pair of goals in their 4-3 overtime loss on Wednesday night at Crypto.com Arena. 

“We've taken too many minor penalties all year,” head coach Jim Hiller said. “We take a bad penalty in the third period, and then they make us pay. And, really, we're down to probably four regular penalty killers. One of the penalty killers takes a penalty; now we're down to three. You can't take that many penalties and put that penalty kill under that much duress.”

After an almost non-eventful opening period, the Kings took three penalties in the second frame, with frequent penalty killer Drew Doughty taking two of them. Despite goaltender Darcy Kuemper making a few big stops, the Sharks converted on one of them for the game’s opening goal when former long-time King Tyler Toffoli scored on a wide-open net on a rebound. 

“We just weren't playing smart,” defenseman Joel Edmundson said. “It was sloppy. We didn't have the energy. Whereas, I think the two games against Minnesota, we came out flying, a lot of excitement. I'm not sure why we didn't have that tonight in the first little bit. We need guys to step up and create energy. We just need to do that moving forward, especially with some key guys out.”

Forward Adrian Kempe took the Kings’ fourth penalty of the game almost four minutes into the third period, and once again the Sharks made the Kings pay when defenseman Timothy Liljegren’s slap shot from the point got tipped in by forward Adam Gaudette. 

“We turned the puck over a lot,” Hiller said of the Kings’ slow start in this one. “What we did so well against Minnesota was we went to the goal line. We threw pucks at the net. We were buzzed. We had two or three guys at the net front jamming it. Today, we were trying to get off the rush and turning it over, and they were racing back at us. For whatever reason, we didn't play the game that we have to play.”

When they weren’t shorthanded, the Kings played well as the game progressed. The Kings controlled play and generated more scoring chances than the Sharks at even strength. 

The Kings even outshot the Sharks 24-18 at even strength and 23-15 when it was five-on-five specifically. Kuemper stopped 14 of 15 shots faced in five-on-five play and made some more big stops on the penalty kill at times. 

But in the end, the Kings fell victim to the Celebrini show. 

With 1:07 left in regulation and chasing a goal, Celebrini knocked down a clear attempt at the blue line, then danced around forward Warren Foegele, then got past forward Quinton Byfield and through the stick check of Foegele, fired a wrister through the five-hole of Kuemper to tie the game and force overtime.

In overtime, Celebrini jumped on an errant pass from Kempe and sprang onto a two-on-one and fed forward William Eklund a pass to score in the open net to seal the deal. 

It was a three-point night for the young superstar as he tallied a goal and a pair of assists. It was his 11th game of three or more points this year, and he only has nine games this season without a point. Celebrini is now at 67 points in 43 games, which is good for third in the NHL.

“It was frustrating compared to the past two games that we played,” Edmundson said. “Just didn't feel like ourselves to be honest… But we just got to bear down. I think it was right there for us.”

One positive note for the Kings, though, is that the third line of Fiala, Alex Turcotte and Andrei Kuzmenko continued to be a bright spot among the forward group. The trio combined for 10 of the Kings’ 26 shots on goal and scored two of the three goals for the Kings. 

“We've relied on them a fair amount over the last little while,” Hiller said. “They were dangerous. We turned a few over early, too, but you saw in the third period, they played in the offensive zone. We didn't get a lot of that from the other lines until the last goal. But those guys were in there pretty consistently. They get the O-zone face-offs. (Turcotte) is doing a good job winning them, and they're making something happen.”

One of the goals that the line produced was much needed for multiple reasons. Not only did it put the Kings on the board, but Turcotte’s goal in the second period snapped a 13-game scoring drought. His point and assist tonight now give him a three-game point streak, which is his only point streak this season.

“He deserves it,” Fiala said. “He’s a great player, and you can see he’s getting rewarded and he's always working hard every day since I got here, and winning battles. Doing those little things and making plays and just being a reliable player, and I'm very happy for him. He's getting a chance now to play more, and he's playing better as well, so I’m very excited for him.”

The Kings are now 18-14-10 with 46 points and currently have a one-point lead over the Anaheim Ducks and Utah Mammoth for the last wild card spot. With the Kings now officially past the halfway mark and the standings in the Western Conference being so tight, every point matters.

“I look at it as exciting,” Edmundson said. “It's a long season. Obviously, every game matters right now. You look at how close the standings are. I get excited for it. We obviously look at it most days. I think we use that as motivation.”