The LA Kings (6-5-4) came up short to the Florida Panthers (7-6-1) Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena, falling by a final score of 5-2.
After first period goals by Anze Kopitar and Corey Perry, the Kings were held off the scoresheet the rest of the way, surrendering four consecutive tallies to the defending Stanley Cup Champions.
Florida got out in front first with an early goal at 2:06 of the first period. A point shot from Jeff Petry got kicked straight out to Sam Bennett, who quickly put the rebound past Anton Forsberg and made it 1-0 for the visitors.
Before the midway point of the opening frame, with Brad Marchand serving a penalty for holding the stick, Adrian Kempe let a shot go that got redirected right in front of the net by Kopitar and evened the game up, 1-1, at 9:23.
Less than two minutes later, the Kings took the lead when Mikey Anderson found Perry with a long stretch pass up the middle. The feed set up a breakaway opportunity, which Perry chipped over goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky’s left shoulder to put LA in front, 2-1.
But before the end of the period, Florida found the equalizer on a takeaway that came deep in the Kings zone. Brad Marchand took control of the puck and flipped it into the net at 17:30, sending the game into the first intermission even once again at 2-2.
The Panthers went back in front at 11:45 of the second period when Sam Reinhart used a backhand shot from in front of the net to make it a 3-2 game.
Then Florida added on with insurance at 8:41 of the third on a shorthanded tally by Anton Lundell that made it 4-2.
Marchand capped off the scoring and put the game out of reach for the Kings with his second goal of the game at 12:36 of the final period.
Kopitar’s tally was the lone man-advantage goal of the contest, with the Kings going 1-for-4 on the power play. In addition, they held Florida’s power play to 0-for-2.
Bobrovsky stopped 24 of the 26 shots that LA put on goal to earn the win, while Forsberg turned out 19 attempts in a losing effort.