One strong or weak period doesn’t make or break an 82-game season, obviously, but the Los Angeles Kings looked mighty for the first 20 minutes of Saturday’s match against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
With three goals on nine shots, the Kings chased Ben Bishop from the Lightning net.
This 3-0 goal in the waning moments probably did Bishop in:
Andrei Vasilevskiy has been hot lately, so the Lightning likely hope that he can stop the bleeding for a comeback. So far, it’s a good start, as Nikita Kucherov batted in a puck early in the second period to make it 3-1.
Update: The Lightning made things interesting, but a Justin Williams goal sealed the deal for a 4-2 Los Angeles win.
The only concern for the Kings tonight is that Alec Martinez went down with an injury. At the moment, it’s unclear how severe it is, but another defenseman down would be a big problem.