CALGARY — After facing 31 shots through three periods, Darcy Kuemper was happy to get a break in overtime on Wednesday.
Kuemper didn’t face a single shot in overtime while his teammates fired four pucks the other way, including one by Tanner Pearson with 26.1 seconds remaining that beat goalie Mike Smith to give the Los Angeles Kings a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames.
"It was kind of a nice overtime for me," said Kuemper, who made 30 saves in regulation time to improve his record to 6-1-3. "I don’t think I had a shot there, so I just kind of watched a little bit. Whenever you get a chance to win it, it’s great to capitalize on that."
Pearson took a pass from Drew Doughty and wired a shot past Smith to help the Kings beat the Flames for the first time this season after losing the previous two meetings between the teams.
"I think in overtime you just want as much possession as possible," Pearson said. "Drew and I were kind of giving give-and-goes all over the ice and then he faked the shot there and froze everyone, so I just wanted to get it off as quick as possible and it went in."
Jake Muzzin also scored for the Kings (26-18-5), who bounced back from a 6-2 loss to the Canucks in Vancouver one night earlier. In that game, starting goalie Jonathan Quick was pulled early in the second period after allowing five goals.
"We were desperate," said Kuemper, who started in place of the injured Quick. "You could tell by the way guys committed in our own zone. Tons of guys had a lot of blocks. We were paying the price it takes to win and we were rewarded for it."
Sean Monahan scored for the Flames (26-16-7), who have recorded points in 10 straight games going 7-0-3 in that span. Calgary has lost three straight 2-1 decisions in extra time on home ice.
"We’re just not getting rewarded right now," said Smith, who finished with 25 saves. "The good thing is we’re still getting points in these games and we’re doing some good things. We’re just a little half-degree off and it’s costing us some points, but we can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have to keep going here. We’re still in the hunt."
Monahan opened the scoring at 14:03 of the first when he finished off a three-way passing play with Micheal Ferland and Johnny Gaudreau. Ferland dropped the puck back to Monahan, who passed it over to Gaudreau before one-timing a return pass from his linemate past Kuemper.
The Flames outshot the Kings 16-8 in the second, but couldn’t beat Kuemper, although Monahan came close with four minutes remaining in the period when he rang a shot off the post during a Calgary power play.
"We had a couple power plays in that second period that had a couple good chances where it would be nice for it to go in," said Flames forward Matthew Tkachuk. "You never want to keep a team in it. You want to suffocate them when you get the chance, but we didn’t do that and they got the two points and we only got the one."
Los Angeles pulled into a 1-1 tie thanks to a power-play goal by Muzzin at 4:09 of the third period. Muzzin took a pass from Anze Kopitar and blasted a point shot through traffic past Smith.
The Kings had a chance to win the game with one minute left in regulation, but Smith stopped Pearson’s shot from the slot before turning aside Adrian Kempe’s rebound attempt.
Notes: Monahan has recorded three goals and two assists in Calgary’s three games against the Kings this season, while Gaudreau has set up five goals. … Both Muzzin and Kopitar ran their point-scoring streak to five games for the Kings. During that span, Muzzin has scored two goals and set up there others, while Kopitar has one goal and four assists.
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