The Kings extended their home winning streak to nine games on Saturday night in a low scouting, yet high flying battle against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Winning 2-1, the Kings rallied after an early goal against and potted the game-winning tally late in regulation to prevail victorious. With the home winning streak now at nine games, the Kings improved their NHL-best home record to 14-2-1.
The Kings quickly fell behind on Saturday night as the Lightning found twine just 1:09 into the game. Going from low to high in the offensive zone, Jake Guentzel and Brayden Point moved the puck up to an open Viktor Hedman. Hedman briefly dragged the blue line, teed the puck up and rifled a slap shot high glove side into the Kings net. It was Hedman’s fifth goal of the season. The Kings didn’t necessarily play Saturday’s game on their terms as the Lightning controlled the much of the puck possession and pace of play, but they still found a way. Instance one, the game-tying goal. Coming off of an offensive zone draw win from Phillip Danault like we’ve seen many times this season, Mikey Anderson caught the face-off won puck, dropped it and fired a shot through traffic into the Lightning net. The goal for Anderson at 7:58 into the first period was his fifth of the season, tying his previous career high in goals set in the 2022-23 seasin. After 20 minutes of play, the game remained tied at 1-1 with the Lightning leading 11-4 in shots.
The second period went scoreless and so was much of the third period. With the game-winning goal coming with 5:48 remaining in regulation, it was Alex Turcotte’s speed and effort that proved to be the difference. Turcotte, who remained on the Kings top line despite the return of a healthy Trevor Moore won the race to a loose puck in the neutral zone and remained in possession after cutting through a pair of Lightning opponents in the offensive zone slot. Turcotte found a fresh off the bench trailer in Adrian Kempe with a slick one-touch drop pass and the Kings’ leading goalscorer deposited his 19th goal of the season with a bullet of a snap shot. Kempe’s goal extends his point streak to four games against the Lightning (3-2=5), while Turcotte’s helper is his first point against the Western Florida franchise.
Darcy Kuemper was spectacular again on Saturday. After surrendering a goal on the first shot of the game, Kuemper responded by stopping the following 34 shots. With the victory, Kuemper is now 7-0-2 since returning from injury dating back to December 7th.
Also very much worth noting for the game was the return of Trevor Lewis who skated in his 1,000th career game on Saturday. In doing so, Lewis became the 13th member of the coveted 2003 NHL Draft class to reach the 1,000-game mark. Lewis also becomes the first Utah native to play 1,000 NHL games.
