Adrian Kempe scored twice in the second period as the Los Angeles Kings avoided being swept on their three-game road trip by beating the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Thursday night.
Playing on the second half of a back-to-back set, the Kings rallied from a one-goal deficit to improve to 11-4-5 away from Los Angeles.
Kings goaltender Anton Forsberg played for the second straight night and made 31 saves.
The Lightning’s Oliver Bjorkstrand notched a power-play goal. Following a seven-game absence, Andrei Vasilevskiy returned to stop 18 shots as his team lost its third straight (0-2-1).
Tampa Bay played without its top point producer (late scratch Nikita Kucherov) and goal scorer (Brandon Hagel), but defenseman Ryan McDonagh returned.
With both clubs trying to rebound from a last loss to the Florida Panthers, the netminder nicknamed the Big Cat stopped the Kings’ Trevor Moore three times on good chances by the Western Conference club, who lost in Sunrise 3-2 to the Stanley Cup champions on Wednesday.
The game’s first penalty, a cross-check against Kempe, led to a 1-0 Lightning lead when Bjorkstrand notched career point No. 399 on a rebound at 12:54.
Forsberg kept it 1-0 with a spectacular, sliding glove save on Dominic James’ shot in the final seconds.
In the second, Kempe redeemed himself by hitting the net twice as the low-scoring Kings ultimately grabbed a 2-1 lead.
Kempe received a pass from Anze Kopitar in the neutral zone and whistled in the tying goal at 5:21.
Just over 10 minutes later, Kempe stole the puck from Pontus Holmberg, sped off on a breakaway from the winger and deked Vasilevskiy for his team-leading 13th tally at 15:58.
Forsberg made another amazing save just over a minute into the third when he reached back and snatched a puck that was trickling toward the goal line. Vasilevskiy then answered by stopping Moore on a very short breakaway.
The Lightning got a power play at 1:05 with Vasilevskiy on the bench for an extra skater, but the Kings held on in the 6-on-4 penalty kill for their first win in five matches (1-2-2).
–Field Level Media
