Adrian Kempe scored his third overtime goal of the season at 3:58 to lift the Los Angeles Kings to a 2-1 victory against the visiting Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.
Quinton Byfield partially whiffed on a shot attempt and the puck went to Kempe at the side of the net. He skated to the inside edge of the right circle and scored with a wrist shot.
The referees returned to the ice to review whether Byfield interfered with Canucks goalie Kevin Lankinen, but the goal stood.
Anze Kopitar scored in regulation and Anton Forsberg made 19 saves for the Kings, who were coming off a 5-4 shootout loss at the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.
Los Angeles has earned a point in nine of its past 10 games (6-1-3).
Evander Kane scored for the Canucks, who have lost five of six (1-4-1).
Lankinen returned after being unavailable the past two games because of personal reasons and made 21 saves for Vancouver, which lost at the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Friday.
The game underwent three replay reviews in the first five minutes, all leading to overturned goals before Kopitar scored at 17:19 of the first period for a 1-0 lead.
Brian Dumoulin made a stretch pass to Kempe in the neutral zone and he carried the puck across the blue line before nearly running into Kopitar as they criss-crossed above the right circle.
Kopitar inadvertently kicked the puck off Kempe’s stick, but it went in front of him and into the high slot, where he shot a one-timer over Lankinen’s glove and into the net for his fifth goal of the season.
The score remained 1-0 until early in the second period after Kane went to the penalty box 43 seconds into the period for slashing Andrei Kuzmenko.
The Canucks killed the penalty and Drew O’Connor spotted Kane exiting the penalty box, hitting him with a stretch pass at the red line for a breakaway. Kane skated in on Forsberg and elected to shoot from between the hash marks, beating him on his stick side to tie it 1-1 at 2:52.
–Field Level Media
