LOS ANGELES – Patric Hornqvist scored the game-winning goal in overtime and the Pittsburgh Penguins broke the hearts of the LA Kings on Luc Robitaille night at Staples Center.
Hornqvist scored on a turnover in the Kings zone by Tyler Toffoli 1:44 into overtime to help the Penguins beat the Kings 1-0 for their sixth win in seven games.
“Marty [Paul Martin] did a great job stepping on that guy in the slot, and the puck just came to me and I shot as fast as I could and it went in,” said Hornqvist of his goal. “I was just in the right place at the right time.”
Marc-Andre Fleury was on fire against the Kings once again as he recorded his ninth shutout of the season and second against Los Angeles.
“I’m not a guy who’s gotten a lot of shutouts in my career,” said Fleury of his bounce-back season. “I’m happy, but it has to do with the team and the way we’ve been playing.”
Fleury’s formula for stopping the Kings is simple: see the puck, stop the puck. It worked to perfection on Saturday night as the Canadian made 31 saves for the Penguins.
“Flower [Marc-Andre Fleury] was great for us at different points when they had momentum, especially in the third when you could tell that we were starting to wear down a bit and he had to make some big saves,” said Penguins captain Sidney Crosby. “We weathered the storm pretty well.” Once again, the Kings outshot their opponent 31 to 18, but had no goals to show for it. The Penguins had the most scoring opportunities in their 18 attempts, including missed opportunities by Chris Kunitz and Crosby.
The Kings had a goal disallowed in the third period when Jake Muzzin’s slap shot found the back of the net, but it was waved off by the referee for goalie interference. Fans immediately rained boos down upon the refs, but replay showed that the call was correct when Kings captain Dustin Brown pushed Fleury out of position in the crease before the goal was scored.
“He pushed me off,” said Fleury. “You always hope the ref sees that, and he did, so I thought it was a great call by him.”
Jonathan Quick made 17 saves for the Kings who salvaged a point on the night, but are slowly losing ground to the teams in front of them in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Kings currently are ninth in the West and if the season ended today, would miss the playoffs for the first time since 2009. At 75 points they are three points behind the Winnipeg Jets (78) for the 8th spot, and four points behind the Minnesota Wild (79) who are in the 7th spot.
With the win, the Penguins move into the 5th position in the Eastern Conference, and have swept the Southern California teams after beating Anaheim on Friday night. Pittsburgh will look to sweep the entire state of California when they play San Jose on Monday at the Shark Tank.
It was another LA Kings legends night at Staples Center as the season-long celebration of Kings greats concluded with the unveiling of Luc Robitaille’s statue in Star Plaza. NHL legends, Wayne Gretzky, Rob Blake and Mario Lemieux were all on hand to honor the Hall of Fame Left Winger.
Game Notes:
Luc Robitaille was honored before the game with a statue in Star Plaza at Staples Center. The Kings sold out Staples Center for the 125th consecutive time and 155th overall; both franchise records.
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