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LOS ANGELES –– With elusive wins over two top teams in their rearview mirror, the Kings found their hands full Saturday afternoon with one of the NHL’s worst teams, the Philadelphia Flyers, who snapped the Kings’ seven-game point streak by handing them a 4-2 loss at Crypto.com Arena.
Winger Adrian Kempe and center Phillip Danault scored goals for the Kings. Jonathan Quick made 19 of 22 saves. Defenseman Alex Edler was honored for playing in his 1,000th career game.
Forward Scott Laughton, winger Owen Tippett and center Noah Cates put pucks past Quick. Leading scorer Travis Konecny capped the game with an empty-net goal with 26 seconds remaining. Flyers backup goalie Samuel Ersson made his third consecutive start, the first three of his career, with Carter Hart staying in concussion protocol longer than expected. He stopped 27 shots.
There was a defining turnabout with 6:59 to play. The Kings had drawn a penalty on Philadelphia’s top defenseman and best penalty killer, Ivan Provorov. But instead of cashing in on the power play, they gave up an unassisted, shorthanded goal to Cates, who flung an ostensibly innocuous shot from just inside the blue line that sailed past Quick.
The Kings produced only one shot on goal in the last 9:02 of action, with the Flyers sacrificing their bodies all over their own zone. They blocked 22 shots to the Kings’ 10 in the contest.
There were close calls to start the third period when Philly winger Wade Allison beat Quick with a shot, only to be denied by the crossbar before winger Joel Farabee tested the Kings with two shot attempts, one blocked by defenseman Drew Doughty and another saved by Quick. Six minutes in, the Kings responded with a flurry of three shots in three seconds, forcing both Ersson and defenseman Tony DeAngelo to stay on their toes.
The second period was marked by a bit of early sloppiness from both sides, until nine minutes into the frame when the Flyers knotted the score with the stanza’s lone goal after Tippett dangled through three defenders on the right wing. His tough-angle wrist shot to the near side equalized by ascending over Quick’s shoulder and into the net for his 12th goal of the year, piling onto what was already a career high.
The Kings assumed control for the second time in the game off a transition play started and ended by Danault. His defensive-zone steal keyed a give-and-go play with winger Viktor Arvidsson, whose saucer pass sent Danault ahead with speed for a heavy slapshot goal from the left circle. Danault’s 12th goal was his third in three games. He has five goals and nine points during his seven-game point streak.
The first period had already been punctuated by two power-play goals from the right faceoff dot, one by each team.
Philadelphia pulled even 12:15 into the game, when Anaheim native Cam York found Laughton for a short-side one-timer for his eighth goal of the year. The Kings have now allowed at least one man-advantage marker in each of their past 10 games.
That power play came on the heels of an extended five-on-three opportunity for the Kings, who converted once. They drew two penalties in the course of eight seconds to earn the lengthy two-man advantage. At the 9:46 mark, Kevin Fiala and Kempe played a bit of a two-man game before they were joined by Doughty. Doughty found Kempe for a one-timer that struck Ersson and then dribbled through him.
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