LOS ANGELES (AP) — Adrian Kempe broke a tie with 5:48 to play and the Los Angeles Kings beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Saturday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Mikey Anderson scored in the first period and Darcy Kuemper made 34 saves for the Kings, who shut out Tampa Bay over the final 58 1/2 minutes. Los Angeles has won 12 of 16.
Captain Victor Hedman scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 19 shots for Tampa Bay, which has lost three straight games for the first time in two months.
Hedman, who was bloodied by a puck to the head Thursday at San Jose, scored just 70 seconds after the opening faceoff in Los Angeles. The star defenseman’s powerful shot ramped off Anderson’s stick and beat Kuemper for his fifth goal of the season.
Anderson answered several minutes later with a long shot through traffic for his career high-tying fifth goal.
Lightning: The NHL’s highest-scoring team is in a mini-slump with just four goals during its three-game skid.
Kings: They’ve earned a point in 14 of 16 games since late November. Kuemper was outstanding to lead a strong, physical defensive performance.
The winning goal was created by Alex Turcotte, who capitalized when Nick Perbix fell down while skating toward a pass from Brayden Point in the Lightning’s end. Turcotte outskated Perbix to the puck before dropping a pass to Kempe, who fired home his 19th goal.
Lewis returned from a 12-game injury absence and played in his 1,000th career NHL game. The 37-year-old forward won the Stanley Cup with Los Angeles in 2012 and 2014, and he returned to the Kings last season after three years away.
The Lightning take the I-10 freeway to the I-5 south to face the Ducks on Sunday night. The Kings get three days off before hosting the Flames on Wednesday night.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL
