Kings defeat Bruins 5-4 in overtime thanks to Clarke’s first career goal.
With 27 seconds remaining in overtime, Brandt Clarke scored his first goal of the game on a breakaway, and the Los Angeles Kings came back to defeat the struggling Boston Bruins 5-4.
Boston (AP) — With 27 seconds remaining in overtime, Brandt Clarke scored his first goal of the game, and the Los Angeles Kings came back to defeat the struggling Boston Bruins 5-4 on Saturday.
After taking down David Pastrnak, Clarke was left in the penalty area alone until he skated in on Linus Ullmark and slipped the puck past the Boston goalie.
After the Kings successfully killed the hooking minor against Clarke, David Rittich saved four shots in overtime. Clarke then ended it with his first goal in 17 NHL games.
With 1:35 left, Anze Kopitar tipped in a goal to knot the score at four and send the game into overtime. Goals by Matt Roy, Vladislav Gavrikov, and Alex Laferriere lifted the Kings’ record to 3-2 following Jim Hiller’s appointment as Los Angeles’ acting coach following Todd McLellan’s firing.
For the Kings, Pierre-Luc Dubois had two assists.
For the Bruins, James van Riemsdyk notched two goals and added an assist, while Ullmark made 30 saves in all. Boston, which has dropped five straight games and was leading this one 3-1 late in the second, also had goals from Trent Frederic and Anthony Richard.
When Pastrnak fouled Clarke with 2:36 remaining in overtime, Boston had a chance to break the run, but the Bruins were unable to take advantage of the 4-on-3 advantage, which consumed the majority of the final minutes of extra and gave the Kings enough time to win.
Van Riemsdyk scored goals off of rebounds in the first quarter, and Richard added a goal at 13:04 in the second to put Boston ahead 3-1. Gavrikov’s wrist shot from the point bounced off Boston defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and went past Ullmark to bring the Kings within three points, 3-2.
At 5:51 into the third, Harvard player Alex Laferriere scored a goal to level the score.
The Bruins dominated much of the tempo and limited the Kings to only six shots in the second quarter, after being outshot 16–8 in the first.
With 12:48 remaining in the third, Rittich stopped Morgan Geekie just in front of the crease, and Frederic swooped in on a rebound to give Boston a 4-3 lead again. Van Riemsdyk scored his third point of the match with an assist.
Van Riemsdyk scored two goals in his second game since joining the Bruins as a free agency in the previous summer. In the season’s second matchup with Nashville on October 14, Van Riemsdyk also scored twice.
At 11:02 of the game, Matt Roy’s shot from the side of the net knotted the score as the puck slowly crossed the goal line despite Ullmark’s best efforts to stop it. A brawl broke out during the Kings’ celebration, and Trent Frederic and Andreas Englund—who had assisted Trevor Lewis on the goal—exchanged blows in the opening exchange of the match.
Boston’s Jake DeBrusk was in the crease battling for position with Mikey Anderson when referees reviewed the footage and invalidated Pastrnak’s goal, which the Kings had also scored. Pastrnak made a fantastic play that was ruined by the review. He turned around completely at the top of the right circle and beat Rittich to the stick side with a wrist shot.