*Photo from the Orange County Register*
One team that's been catching fire lately, and one team that's outright terrible. Yet, it ended up being a close game. Viktor Arvidsson scored two goals, Blake Lizotte scored, and the Los Angeles Kings rallied to defeat the Arizona Coyotes with a 3-2 win on Wednesday night in Arizona.
After beating the Coyotes 5-3 on February 19, the Kings came out 4 days later and did the same thing, picking up another win. They've now won 3 straight games, have a 7-0-2 record in their last 9 road games, and have a 7-1-2 record in their previous 10 games, improving to 27-17-7 this season, sitting in 3rd place in the Pacific Division.
With an assist on one of Arvidsson's goals, Phillip Danault increased his current point streak to 5 games. In those 5 games, he has two goals and 4 assists. A fast paced second period saw the first 3 goals of the game come within a span of 1:10, before tapering off significantly.
Arvidsson said of the Kings style of play that "I think we're really hard to play against, we're on the puck all time and that frustrates the other team. I think that's our strength. We take pucks to the net and we create offensive chances and play really solid defensively."
After a scoreless first period, Clayton Keller got the Coyotes on the board 6:25 into the second period, with his 21st goal of the season. Lizotte responded just 18 seconds later, tying the game 1-1 on his 7th goal of the season, coming 6:43 into the second period, assisted by Mikey Anderson and Brendan Lemieux.
Less than a minute later, Arvidsson tallied his first goal of the night, putting the Kings ahead 2-1 at the 7:35 mark of the second. Barrett Hayton tied things up for the Coyotes 13:03 into the second, making it a 2-2 game with his 3rd goal of the season. Arvidsson scored the lone goal of the 3rd period to put the Kings ahead 3-2.
Kings head coach Todd McClellan said of the play from Lizotte's line recently that "`Lizzo's' line generally provides us with some energy, and they bring us back. Tonight they scored, which was tremendous, it kept us around."
Making his second consecutive start for the Kings was Cal Petersen, after he had alternated the last 14 games with Jonathan Quick. Petersen had himself a nice night, stopping 17 of the just 19 shots he faced from the Coyotes, posting a .895 save percentage, a deceiving total given that he didn't even face 20 shots. His record improves to 13-7-1 in 21 starts this season.
Opposing Petersen was Scott Wedgewood of the Coyotes, who took the loss while also having a good night himself. Wedgewood turned aside 32 of the 35 shots the Kings sent his way, good for a .914 save percentage in a loss. With the loss, Wedgewood's record drops to a 6-12-3 mark in 19 starts and 4 relief outings.
Coyotes forward Nick Schmaltz said of the Kings that "They try to slow it down, it's tough to gain possession to the neutral zone when they're sitting back. It's tough to come with speed because they just kind of stand there and clog the neutral zone. It's kind of frustrating."
Both teams resume play on Friday, with the Coyotes playing host to the Vegas Golden Knights. Karel Vejmelka is expected to start. The Kings head to Anaheim for a matchup with the Ducks, with Quick likely to start.
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