Posted by Irvine Sign Company
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LOS ANGELES – Trying to stay classy during this non-playoff season, the Kings on Saturday night showed some character against a Chicago Blackhawks team desperately trying to stay in the Western Conference playoff race.
Down a goal late, Michael Amadio tied the game for the Kings at 15:45 of the third period. Drew Doughty then scored a power-play goal with just 12 seconds left in the overtime period to lift the Kings to a 3-2 victory over Chicago before 18,230 at Staples Center.
The Kings had two fourth-line goals – by Austin Wagner and Amadio – and a fine performance from goalie Jack Campbell, who made 33 saves.
That was not lost on Doughty.
“I think we just all played together,” Doughty said. “And, obviously, ‘Soup’ kept us in it with some big saves. He played well all game and only allowed them to get two goals, so that was a big part of it.
“But, yeah, we just played together and we didn’t give up and our fourth line got us two big goals, too. … That was huge by them; they don’t get a lot of minutes.”
Wagner played 7:06, Amadio 7:48.
The Kings are 29-40-9 (67 points). They went 3-0 this season against the Blackhawks.
Chicago (34-33-11, 79 points) earned a point and is six points out of a playoff spot with four games to play.
Even though his team has been eliminated from playoff contention, Campbell was able to take some joy from this victory.
“Regardless of where the season is, I mean, it is frustrating, but any time you win it feels great,” he said. “I mean, that’s a really good team and they’re fighting for their life over there.
“We knew they would come out and play really hard. And I thought we played great. Fortunately the boys played really, really well in front of me. It feels good to win in overtime, for sure.”
Chicago took a 1-0 lead at 1:38 of the second period on Alex DeBrincat’s 41st goal of the season. The puck might have gone in off the stick of a Kings player. Officially, assists went to Patrick Kane and Artem Anisimov.
It was the 105th point of the season for Kane.
That goal was not nearly as electrifying as the one scored by Kings rookie Austin Wagner to tie the game at 16:05 of the period.
Wagner took a pass at the defensive blue line and, using his tremendous speed, blew by everybody as he skated in on goalie Corey Crawford and put it past him from point-blank range.
The crowd went wild.
Jeff Carter and Matt Roy assisted.
Kings interim coach Willie Desjardins marveled at Wagner’s 12th of the season.
“It’s exciting,” Desjardins said. “The speed’s such a big part of the game and every once in a while he just takes off and makes something out of nothing. It wasn’t like there was anything there. He just made it there because of his speed.”
The Blackhawks took a 2-1 lead at 3:09 of the third period on Erik Gustafsson’s 17th of the season. Gustafsson scored on a long shot that seemed to disappear past Campbell, who barely reacted as if to suggest he was screened out and didn’t see the puck.
But this was the Kings’ night, and they weren’t about to roll over.
Amadio made sure of that when he scored his fifth of the season at 15:45 to tie the game 2-2. Trevor Lewis and Kyle Clifford had the assists, and the table was set for Doughty’s overtime heroics. His game-winner was his seventh goal of the season.
Tyler Toffoli and Anze Kopitar assisted Doughty.
Gustafsson was ticked about the defeat.
“It sucks,” he said. “Three minutes left with a one-goal lead and we lose in overtime. We’ve got to be better, we’ve got to close the game.”
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