Kings Erase Two Deficits, Still Fall 5-4 in OT to Sharks
Los Angeles clawed back from down three goals and tied it late in the third, but Igor Chernyshov's second goal of the night in overtime sent the Kings home with a season-opening loss.
Okay, the vibes on this one are rough — the Kings basically rescued this game twice and still lost it. Final: Sharks 5, Kings 4 in overtime. The underlying numbers say Los Angeles played the better game. The scoreboard says otherwise. That's hockey, dude.
What happened
The Kings led 1-0 after the first period on Adrian Kempe's power-play one-timer, set up by a cross-slot feed from Artemi Panarin. Then San Jose erupted for three in the second: Tyler Toffoli tipped one in to tie it 1-1, Kiefer Sherwood forced a turnover on the forecheck and snapped a quick shot past Anton Forsberg to put the Sharks up 2-1, and Nolan Allan's wrist shot made it Sharks 3-1. Quinton Byfield toe-dragged a Mats Zuccarello feed and roofed a wrist shot with 1.3 seconds left in the period, trimming it to Sharks 3-2 after two.
San Jose pushed the lead back to two in the third on Igor Chernyshov's backhand, but the Kings answered fast: Erik Haula tipped in an Erik Gustafsson point shot to make it Sharks 4-3, then Panarin — working off a turnover Byfield forced — ripped a one-timer slap shot past Yaroslav Askarov to tie it 4-4 with five minutes left. Genuinely elite response there, give the Kings that.
Then overtime happened. Macklin Celebrini walked the puck into the zone and dished to Chernyshov, who beat Anton Forsberg for his second goal of the night 3:18 into the extra frame. Sharks win it 5-4. San Jose leads the season series 1-0.
The stat lines
Kempe finished with a goal, an assist and six shots. Byfield matched him with a goal and an assist of his own, plus he won 13 of 20 faceoffs — a 65% clip, which is just a good night at the dot regardless of the final score. Panarin also chipped in a goal and an assist. Brandt Clarke didn't score but picked up two assists on the blue line.
On the other side, Chernyshov's two goals and an assist made him the easy first star, with Byfield second and Toffoli (goal, assist) third.
In net, Anton Forsberg stopped 20 of 25 for an .800 save percentage in the loss, while Yaroslav Askarov made 31 saves on 35 shots for San Jose.
What the numbers say
Here's the part that's actually kind of gnarly: the Kings outshot the Sharks 35-25, won the power-play battle 66.7% (2-for-3) to San Jose's 50% (1-for-2), and out-worked them at the faceoff dot, 53.1% to 46.9%. By pretty much every surface-level number, Los Angeles had the better game. They just gave up the last goal, and that's the one that counts in the standings.
Hits went San Jose's way, 23-19, while giveaways were close — 19 for the Kings, 25 for the Sharks. No real red flags in the underlying data for a Game 1. The finish just wasn't there.
Los Angeles is back in action Tuesday, October 6 against the Florida Panthers.
