The LA Kings were unable to round out their trip with a victory, as they dropped a 2-1 game in the District of Columbia against the Washington Capitals on Monday evening at Capital One Arena.
Former Kings defenseman Matt Roy opened the scoring for the hosts in unique fashion, as he redirected a shot past Kings goaltender Darcy Kuemper to open the scoring. Roy shook his way loose as he activated offensively and from an unfamiliar position on the ice, got a deflection on a point shot from forward Aliaksei Protas and in for his first goal of the season and an early 1-0 lead.
Inside the first two minutes of the second period, Washington made it 2-0 through forward Alex Ovechkin. After cycling the puck in the offensive zone, Ovechkin was left alone in front of Kuemper, took a feed from forward Connor McMichael and buried the 903rd goal of his NHL career to double the advantage for Washington at 2-0.
The Kings converted on their second power play of the game to get back to within a goal at 2-1. Attacking off the rush, forward Kevin Fiala distributed the puck to forward Corey Perry down the right wing. Perry then found forward Anze Kopitar driving the net and the captain buried from close range for his third goal of the season, bringing the visitors within a goal with 6:33 to play in the middle stanza.
The latter portion of the game saw a pretty hectic push for the Kings, as they outshot Washington 23-11 over the final 40 minutes, but the second goal never came, as the trip ended with a 2-1 defeat, rounding out a 4-1-0 record over the five games on the East Coast.
Hear from Fiala, defenseman Brian Dumoulin and Head Coach Jim Hiller after tonight’s game.
