Kings get burned by Flames, 2-1, in overtime
They combined for seven goals — moments of verve, flash and dash — putting on an entertaining show of offense.
Not quite a month later, the Kings and Calgary Flames opted for something different Monday night at Staples Center. They toiled for two periods and more than half of the third before the scoring drought ended.
Then it hit another level but one thing remained the same. The Kings were unable to hold a third-period lead against the Flames.
Calgary won, 2-1, in overtime at Staples Center in a pitched battle for eighth place in the Western Conference and now lead the Kings by one point.
The game winner came from defenseman Dennis Wideman with 52 seconds remaining in overtime as his shot sailed past goalie Jonathan Quick and hit the in-goal camera.
A review by the league’s situation room determined it was a good goal and issued this statement:
“At 4:24 of overtime in the Flames/Kings game, the Situation Room initiated a video review to further examine a play at the Los Angeles net. Video review determined that Dennis Wideman’s shot at 4:08 completely crossed the Los Angeles goal line.”
The Kings are a combined 2-12 in overtimes and shootouts this season.
Calgary, which has won five consecutive road games, had pulled even on an unassisted goal with 6:05 remaining in regulation by forward Sean Monahan, who capitalized on a turnover by defenseman Alec Martinez. Monahan scored his team-leading 14th goal, beating Quick glove side with a shot from the left circle.
Defenseman Matt Greene had made it 1-0 at 10:53 of the third period, scoring from the blue line after some solid work in the corner from Dustin Brown and Trevor Lewis.
For Greene, it was his third goal, one short of his career high and first goal since Dec. 11 at Ottawa.
Until then, it had been the Joni Ortio Show.
The rookie goalie from Finland had been flawless under a steady stream of shots. He faced 27 through the first two periods, including inspired bids from Brown and Jeff Carter, and made 33 saves overall. Ortio is 4-0-0 with a goals-against average of 1.23.
“He [Ortio] played well for them, but if you are only scoring one goal a game, then we can do things better,” Brown said. “We need two points right now. That’s the fact of the matter, especially against teams like that.”
For Quick, there were long spells of inactivity. Calgary mustered three shots on goal in the first period and six more in the second.
The Kings were hoping for a spark by the return of veteran defenseman Robyn Regehr, a former Flame, but he was a minus-two. He had been sidelined since Dec. 18 because of a broken finger and the Kings, in particular, had struggled lately killing penalties.
With Regehr back, that meant defenseman Jeff Schultz was out. Before Monday, the Kings had given up at least one power-play goal in five of their last six games.
Regehr helped correct that as the Flames were 0 for 5 on the power play Monday.
Sutter praised the Kings’ resiliency. They’ve won only three times since the Christmas break.
“Just got to always bounce back, keep bouncing back. ... That’s a big point [for us] at the end of the day. That’s what you’ve got to look at.”
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