HIGHLIGHTS: Kings give up four goals in 3rd period, lose 5-3 to Sens

The Los Angeles Kings surrendered four third-period goals in a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon.

The Senators scored three unanswered goals in a span of 5:02 in the third period as the L.A. Kings blew a 3-1 third-period lead and lost to Ottawa 5-3 Saturday afternoon at Staples Center.

Jeff Carter, Vincent Lecavalier and Tyler Toffoli all scored for L.A. as the Kings snapped a three-game point streak.

The Senators were a few centimetres away from opening the scoring (even Bobby Ryan thought he had it), but thanks to Jonathan Quick’s toe, that didn’t happen.

Not long after that and with just 1:23 left in the opening period, the Kings took a 1-0 lead. Toffoli fanned on a one-time pass from Jake Muzzin, but luckily the puck slid right to a wide-open Carter, who scored his 100th goal as a King.

7:48 into the second period, Lecavalier scored his first goal of the season and first in a Kings jersey. It was Lecavalier’s first goal since April 1, 2015 when he was still a member of the Philadelphia Flyers. Christian Ehrhoff made a spectacular spin-o-rama backhand pass that found Lecavalier’s stick when the newest member of L.A. roofed it over a sprawling Craig Anderson.

Less than four minutes later, the Senators capitalized on a Kings turnover in the L.A. zone. Curtis Lazar collected the puck and threw it on net when it was directed aside by the left pad of Quick. Alex Chiasson picked up the loose puck and put it into the open net to make it a 2-1 game.

3:05 into the final frame, the Kings regained their two-goal lead. After a solid breakout from their own zone, Milan Lucic, skating down the left wing, fed Toffoli with a perfect centering pass that Toffoli redirected past Anderson’s left pad to make it 3-1.

The Senators wouldn’t go away that easily, though, scoring two goals in a span of 26 seconds.

After Quick stopped an initial Erik Karlsson point shot, Mika Zibanejad collected the rebound and slid the puck across the crease to Ryan, who put the puck past Quick with a quick wrister. 26 seconds later, Jean-Gabriel Pageau stripped Muzzin of the puck and banged the puck by an unsuspecting Quick to tie the game, 3-3.

4:36 later and with Nick Shore in the box after taking a double-minor penalty for high-sticking, Zibanejad gave the Senators their first lead of the game. Zibanejad one-timed a cross-ice Ryan pass from the top of the left circle that beat Quick high over his blocker as Ottawa went up 4-3 with 6:50 remaining in the game.

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Mark Borowiecki iced the game for the visitors when he tallied his first of the season by scoring an empty-net goal as the Senators took the game, 5-3.

Quick made 18 saves on 22 shots while Anderson turned aside 30.

You can find the game’s boxscore here.

Los Angeles will get a chance to return to the win column tomorrow night when they make a visit to Anaheim for a battle with the Ducks. Puck drop is slated for 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET.