Slumping Los Angeles Kings lose to the Ottawa Senators
The Los Angeles Kings continue to struggle in the latter half of the month of November as they suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Ottawa Senators.
How it happened
The Senators started the scoring while on the power play exactly halfway through the period when Alex Kovalev scored his sixth of the season. Kovalev fired a quick slap shot which shattered his stick on
the play as the puck flew past Jonathan Quick in the Kings' goal. The goal was Kovalev's 1000th point of his career.
The Kings tied things up at 1-1 before the end of the period when Anze Kopitar scored his seventh of the year.
The Kings took the lead while on the power play when Ryan Smyth scored his seventh, but Milan Michalek scored with less than a minute to go in the period to tip momentum in Ottawa's favour going into the
third.
Jason Spezza was credited with the lone goal of the third period with a pretty effort to beat Quick for his sixth of the year, although Ryan Smyth and the Kings will argue that the game should have been
sent to overtime after Smyth's goal with three seconds to go was waved off. Smyth was adjudged to have deflected the puck with a high-stick even though replays seemed to indicate his stick was below the crossbar.
What they're saying
Smyth was obviously disappointed to see his late effort waved off but admitted that his team, which outshot the Senators 30-19, had had plenty of chances to tie the game beforehand.
"It was close," Smyth said to reporters after the game. "Obviously it's a tough call for him to make when he's in the corner. It was pretty tough, but I think it was probably a good goal. But we had some
chances early on and it shouldn't have come down to that."
Kovalev's 1000th point left the 37-year-old Russian feeling particularly proud of his achievement.
"It's kind of hard for me to imagine but I'm just really proud," he said.
With the win the Senators snapped a three-game losing streak and moved back into the top eight in the Eastern Conference. They prepare to host the Dallas Stars on Wednesday 24 November.
The Kings, who were one of the hottest teams in the NHL at the start of the season have really begun to slow down and have now lost four of their last five games – four of those games have been on the
road, however, and they still possess the NHL's best home record. They will be hoping to change their road fortunes when they face the Canadiens in Montreal on Wednesday night.
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