LOS ANGELES — The Kings commanded the shot count and several analytical barometers but lost on Saturday afternoon at Crypto.com Arena just the same, 4-3, to the comeback kids from Montreal.
The Canadiens earned their NHL-leading 20th circle-the-wagons win after the Ducks rallied to topple them 6-5 in a shootout 22 hours earlier.
Anže Kopitar, Alex Laferriere and Scott Laughton, who made his Kings debut after being a last-second acquisition on Friday, lit the lamp for the hosts. Brandt Clarke had two assists. Darcy Kuemper stopped 19 of 23 shots.
Juraj Slafkovský scored two goals and assisted on the game-winner by Nick Suzuki, who added two assists. Jake Evans also tallied. Phillip Danault returned for the first time since his December trade, and was held scoreless. Jakub Dobeš made 34 saves.
With 5:59 to play, Montreal stormed the Kings net with Lane Hutson sliding the puck underneath Kuemper, initiating a sequence where seven skaters and a goalie formed a pile of humanity in the crease. The Canadiens failed to convert as the Kings scrambled and held their ground.
Yet after that near miss, Montreal delivered a direct hit and then another, scoring two goals in 49 seconds after Trevor Moore took an untimely slashing penalty. It was Hutson feeding Slafkovský for a rocket from near the right dot.
At the 6:44 mark of the third period, the Kings took their second lead. Moore put a shot attempt over the crossbar, recovered the puck and found Clarke, whose rebound came to Laferriere for his 16th goal and third in four games.
The Kings held the Habs without a shot on goal for 17:59 during the first period and early part of the second. But the visitors then registered two in under a minute, scoring on the second. The teams would then exchange blows, figuratively, to go into the second period at 2-2 after a Kings goal at 17:31.
Panarin generated forward momentum at the end of a shift, skating to the bench as Clarke flipped the puck in deep. Jared Wright skated it down and turned a slick pass for Laughton, whose whirling, sharp-angle bid beat Dobeš improbably to the far side. It was Wright’s first career point and Laughton’s first goal as a King after scoring eight with Toronto before the trade deadline.
Yet earlier, Laughton was a mere nuisance for Slafkovský as he drove from the right-wing wall to the slot to beat Kuemper glove side for a go-ahead goal at 15:41.
Evans had tied the game at 1, faking a slap shot, adjusted his shooting angle and let fly with a low, short-side bid that beat Kuemper, 3:09 into the stanza.
The first period had echoes of last year’s dominant showings at home, with the Kings turning in a sharp performance and the Habs playing an atrocious 20 minutes.
Montreal took three penalties, two coming almost consecutively, and were out-shot 16-1 by the Kings, who scored the period’s only goal and had another from Samuel Helenius disallowed for goalie interference by Jeff Malott.
The Kings got on the board 14:12 into the match. Panarin challenged Mike Matheson. Though he lost the puck, it came to Adrian Kempe, who spotted Kopitar gliding ahead for a backdoor redirection. It was the captain’s seventh goal of the season and first since Dec. 8.
Kopitar is now three points behind Marcel Dionne for the franchise’s all-time scoring lead.
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