LOS ANGELES — Taking three weeks off to accommodate the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the NHL schedule resumed Wednesday night and the Kings picked up where they paused.
Hosting the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights, the Kings came into the game three points shy of a playoff spot following losses in four of five games prior to the break, including a three-goal defeat to the Knights on Feb. 5 in Las Vegas.
Twenty-one days later, Vegas ended the season series between the teams with a 6-4 win that featured five goals from the visitors in the last 12 minutes.
Playing without Swiss forward Kevin Fiala, who is suffered a season-ending broken leg in the Olympic tournament, the Kings (23-20-14, 60 points) looked for recent addition Artemi Panarin to make an immediate impact.
Acquired two days before the Olympic break in a trade with the New York Rangers in exchange for forward Liam Greentree and draft picks, the 34-year-old Russian winger showed promising signs for a team near the bottom of the league in beating opposing goaltenders.
Joining Alex Laferriere and Adrian Kempe on Coach Jim Hiller’s first line, Panarin factored into the Kings’ 2-1 lead heading into the final frame.
Notching his first point for the black and silver with a power-play assist off the skate of Quinton Byfield at 13:51 of the first period, Panarin, wearing jersey No. 72, added another assist at 14:44 of the second period as part of a terrific combination play with Anze Kopitar to set up Kempe’s 21st goal.
The Kings snatched the lead shortly after killing a penalty stemming from Corey Perry fighting with the Golden Knights’ Jeremy Lauzon, who dropped a hard check on Byfield along the boards.
Scratching five participants from Sunday’s gold-medal match between the U.S. and Canada – Americans Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin along with Canadians Mark Stone, Mitch Marner and Shea Theodore – Vegas hoped to rest key contributors and take advantage of a rival with the league’s third-worst points percentage at home this season.
At 10:59 of the first period, the visitors jumped ahead when another Russian winger, Pavel Dorofeyev, scored on the backside of a two-on-one against Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg.
Vegas leveled the score at 8:07 of the third period, when a Colton Sissons backhand produced his fourth goal of the season.
That was the beginning of a swarm of third-period goals.
Less than two minutes later, a snapshot by Brandon Saad from the right circle snuck past Forsberg.
Sixty-five seconds after that, the Knights made it 4-2 when a Reilly Smith backhand evaded the Kings backup goaltender for his 10th goal of the season.
The Kings clawed back with an unassisted wrister from Byfield, his 13th of the season, directly in front of Knights netminder Adin Hill at 13:26 to make it 4-3.
A roughing call on Panarin at 15:10 for taking a swipe at Lauzon was immediately cashed for a power-play goal good for Dorofeyev’s 28th of the campaign.
Pulling Forsberg for an extra attacker, a Brandt Clarke slap shot from the blue line glanced off the underside of the crossbar to give the Kings a chance in the final 66 seconds.
Vegas (28-16-14, 70 points) quickly ended any hope of a comeback with an empty-net finish for Ivan Barbarshev’s 17th of the season.
More to come on this story.
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