Los Angeles Kings Defeat Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2 on the Road

The Los Angeles Kings have emerged victorious! In a win against the Tampa Bay Lightning, in a victory that goes like this: 4-2.

First Period:

In the first period, 1:33 in the game, Tyler Toffoli comes up big for the Kings, netting the first goal of the game! What did I say about keeping an eye on him? The Kings also came up big again with Justin Williams also getting a goal. Justin Williams, who has been struggling a bit with production got his first goal of the game around 12 minutes in, but it wasn’t his last. The goal was assisted by Trevor Lewis and Jake Muzzin. But wait…there’s more. Drew Doughty also got a nice goal to end the first period, assisted by Robyn Regehr and Anze Kopitar. The Kings were tied with the Lightning when it came to shots at 9-9. Only one penalty in the first, and it was Jeff Carter getting tripping against Steven Stamkos. Nothing came of it, as the Kings killed the penalty. End of the first, Kings 3, Lightning 0.

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Second Period:

The second period was all defense for the Kings, and they did a spectacular job keeping Stamkos contained. The Kings defense was certainly on top of their game, and even outshot the Lightning in the second period by a nice 15 to 10. I’ve been complaining about the Kings shooting because their lack thereof has been hurting them in the goal department, and it’s important to always outshoot your opponent. If you can take a shot, take it, don’t sit around waiting for something to happen, make it happen. There was only one goal scored in the second period, and that was by the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov, getting his 19th goal of the season, which is quite impressive. There were numerous penalties coming in the second period, first being Andrej Sustr, who slashed Jonathan Quick two minutes into the second, but there was also Dustin Brown roughing Sustr, and the penalty was a four-on-four. Nothing came of it. In fact, both teams received penalties three times with each other, and each was a coincidental, so instead of boring you with penalty discussion, we’ll just let you know that both teams were getting rough. Victor Hedman got the only individual penalty roughing Trevor Lewis. The penalty was killed. At the end of the second, Kings 3, Lightning 1.

Third Period:

Each team scored in the third period once, the first being Victor Hedman, assisted by Ryan Callahan, narrowing the Kings’s lead down to just one. The game which was close was closed with a Justin Williams goal 7:46 into the third, to put the Kings up 4-2, assisted by Marian Gaborik, and Robyn Regehr. There were two penalties, one by Alex Killorn who interfered on Jonathan Quick, and the other was by Justin Williams with a too many men on the ice violation. The Kings trailed in shots with 5 shots for the Kings and 9 for the Lightning. But again, the defense was able to step it up, and Stamkos didn’t get a single point tonight.

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Conclusion:

The L.A. Kings played tonight the kind of hockey that they need to play every night. Tough hockey, where they are outshooting the opponent, and outhitting the opponent, and in the end, outscoring the opponent. Tonight was a game against a team that has a significantly better record than the Kings, but that didn’t stop the Kings from coming out and stealing the win. Hopefully this kind of hockey can continue into the next game the Kings play.

Go Kings Go!