BOSTON — Former first-round pick Brandt Clarke scored on a breakaway with 27 seconds left in overtime for his first career goal, and the Los Angeles Kings rallied to beat the slumping Boston Bruins 5-4 on Saturday.
Clarke, the No. 8 overall selection in 2021, had just been sprung from the penalty box for taking down David Pastrnak and was all alone when he skated in on Linus Ullmark and slipped the puck past the Boston goaltender.
“I think from when I touched it at the red line to when everyone was jumping on me, I don’t even really remember that section, but that was pretty wild,” Clarke said. “I’m happy we got the job done.”
David Rittich stopped four shots in overtime and the Kings successfully killed the hooking minor on Clarke before he ended it with his first goal in 17 career NHL games.
“We added to our problems today. We had breakdowns that shouldn’t be happening within our structure,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. “And then also, just game management. You’ve got to close out a game.”
Anze Kopitar tipped in a goal with 1:35 remaining to tie it at 4-all and force overtime. Matt Roy, Vladislav Gavrikov and Alex Laferriere scored goals for the Kings, who improved to 3-2 since Jim Hiller was named interim coach after Los Angeles fired Todd McLellan.
Pierre-Luc Dubois had two assists for the Kings.
James van Riemsdyk scored twice and added an assist for the Bruins, and Ullmark finished with 30 saves. Trent Frederic and Anthony Richard also scored for Boston, which has lost five of six and led this one 3-1 late in the second period.
Boston was in good position to stop the skid when Pastrnak drew a penalty on Clarke with 2:36 left in OT, but the Bruins couldn’t capitalize during the 4-on-3 advantage that ate up much of the last few minutes of overtime but allowed just enough time for the Kings to win it.
“In the overtime, our power play has to put it away,” Montgomery said. “And we didn’t.”
Van Riemsdyk scored first-period goals on rebounds and Richard scored 13:04 in the second to put Boston up 3-1. The Kings pulled within 3-2 when a wrist shot by Gavrikov from the point deflected off Boston defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk and got past Ullmark.
Alex Laferriere, who played at Harvard, tied it with a goal 5:51 into the third.
After being outshot 16-8 in the opening period, the Bruins controlled much of the pace in the second and held the Kings to just six shots.
Frederic swooped in for a rebound after Rittich stopped Morgan Geekie from just in front of the crease and scored to put Boston back up 4-3 with 12:48 left in the third. Van Riemsdyk had an assist for his third point of the game.
It was the second two-goal game for van Riemsdyk since he signed with the Bruins as a free agent last summer. Van Riemsdyk also scored twice against Nashville on Oct. 14 in the second game of the season.
The Kings tied it up 11:02 into the game when Matt Roy got off a shot from the side of the net and the puck slowly crossed the goal line as Ullmark scrambled to stop it. Multiple players squared off when a scrum developed during the Kings’ celebration and Andreas Englund, who joined Trevor Lewis with an assist on the goal, and Trent Frederic exchanged punches in the game’s first fight.
Pastrnak also scored for Boston, but the goal was disallowed after the Kings challenged and officials reviewed video of the play and found Boston’s Jake DeBrusk was in the crease while fighting for position with Mikey Anderson. The review wiped out a great play by Pastrnak, who spun a full 360 degrees at the top of the right circle and came out of the spin with a wrist shot that beat Rittich to the stick side.
The Kings, who sit in the No. 1 wild-card position in the Western Conference, will wrap up a four-game road trip against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday night.
“They’re a desperate team,” Montgomery said of the Kings. “They’re fighting for their playoff lives, and we’re going to get a lot of that now. And our desperation, I think, since the [All-Star] break, has not matched our opponents.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com