The Kings dropped their second straight game on the Canadian divisional opponent road trip Tuesday night. This one against the Calgary Flames, the Kings fell 4-2 on the second half of a back-to-back, bringing their record to 2-5-2 in those situations this season. The loss for the Kings keeps them two points behid the Edmonton Oilers and now has them tied with the Nashville Predators in the Wild Card race. The loss also brings the Flames within five points of the Kings in the standings as they work to get back into the playoffs.
It was a scoreless first period at the Saddledome on Thursday, but the play heavily favored the Flames as they outshot the Kings 10-3. Into the second period, the shot advantage was much of the same for the Flames but the offenses showed as well. It was Phillip Danault who opened the game’s scoring with a wicked slapshot. Danault entered the offensive zone with space after receiving the puck from linemate Kevin Fiala and absolutely piped a laser to the glove side corner for his 11th goal of the season, all coming on the road. The Kings lead lasted just 48 seconds as Andrew Mangiapane weaved his way through the Kings defense and deked his way around Cam Talbot to tie the game back up. The Flames then took the lead 56 later with a net-front Blake Coleman goal. Now trailing late in the period, Fiala notched his second point of the game with a beautiful in tight backhander over the shoulder and glove of Jakob Markstrom to send the teams in the final 20 at 2-2.
Even at deuces entering the third period for the second straight night, history unfortunately repeated itself as the Flames potted another pair of goals and came out victorious 4-2. The eventual game-winning goal came from Yegor Sharangovich just after a Flames power play expired. Unable to reset the lines, the Kings allowed Sharongovich space entering the Kings defensive zone and the first-year Flame beat Talbot through an unintentional Jordan Spence screen. A Michael Backlund empty net goal from his defensive extended the lead to two goals and sent the Kings home with back-to-back losses.
Talbot stopped 33 of 36 shots on the night.
