Rickard Rakell scored a wrist shot from the right point at 1:44 of overtime to give the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.
Rakell also had an assist, while Evgeni Malkin and Matt Grzelcyk added goals. Alex Nedeljkovic made 29 saves for the Penguins, who were down by a goal with six minutes left in the game.
Adrian Kempe and Alex Turcotte scored for the Kings, with Vladislav Gavrikov adding two assists. Darcy Kuemper made 28 saves for Los Angeles, who have lost two of their last three games after a six-game winning streak.
Kempe gave the Kings a 1-0 lead just 33 seconds into the game, scoring his team-leading 16th goal of the season. Anze Kopitar passed the puck behind the Pittsburgh net to Kempe, who scored with a one-timer.
Kempe has now scored eight goals in his last four games against Pittsburgh. He scored three goals in two games against the Penguins last season and netted a career-high four goals in a 6-0 win against them on February 11, 2023.
The Penguins tied the game 1-1 at 6:22 of the second period after Michael Bunting and Malkin broke away on a 2-on-1 rush. Bunting, playing in his 300th NHL game, passed the puck to Malkin, and the puck went under Kuemper’s pads and off the far post. Malkin appeared to deflect it slightly before it went off Kuemper’s skate and crossed the goal line.
The Kings regained the lead 2-1 at 11:38 of the second period. Gavrikov cleared the puck from his slot, and it bounced off the boards near the red line. Turcotte beat the Penguins to the puck, raced down the right side, and scored with a wrist shot from the edge of the circle.
After being stopped several times by Kuemper in the third period, Grzelcyk finally got one past him with a wrist shot from the left circle to tie the game 2-2 at 14:25 of the third period.
