The Los Angeles Kings have officially put a tough start to the season behind them.
Tanner Pearson broke a tie late in the third period with his first goal since breaking his leg last season and the Kings beat the Edmonton Oilers 3-2 on Sunday night for their fifth straight win.
Connor McDavid nearly tied it for Edmonton with 5.2 seconds left, but Jonathan Quick sprawled to catch his backhander right at the goal line. A replay review upheld the no-goal call.
“It happened so fast,” McDavid said. “Obviously I’m going to think I scored there in a situation like that ... I thought it could have gone in.”
Pearson’s power-play goal put the Kings ahead with 3:26 left. He found the rebound from Jake Muzzin’s shot and slapped it past goalie Cam Talbot, helping Los Angeles ease concerns over an 0-3-0 start.
Pearson’s score came fewer than 3 minutes after Taylor Hall tied it for Edmonton on the power play following Brayden McNabb’s tripping minor. Hall redirected a pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for his third of the season.
“When you take a penalty late like that, they give their final push,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “They got one, but the character of this team came up again and we got one right back on them. That was huge.”
Edmonton have lost two straight and fell to 3-6-0.
“It’s disappointing, but it was great to see that we didn’t give up,” Oilers forward Nugent-Hopkins said. “We just fought back and we came within inches at the end.”
Kopitar and Jeff Carter also scored for the Kings. Drew Doughty had two assists.
Pearson broke his leg at Winnipeg on January 10 and missed the rest of last season.
McDavid set up Benoit Pouliot’s first-period goal with an impressive sprint toward the net around a defender. McDavid and Nail Yakupov assisted on the goal, extending each of their point streaks to five games.
Just over a minute later, Carter banked in a shot off Talbot from behind the goal line.
Kopitar picked the top corner on Talbot during an odd-man rush with 6:24 left in the second.
Edmonton defenceman Justin Schultz left the game in the second with an undisclosed injury and did not return.
Elsehwere in the NHL
New York Rangers 4, Calgary Flames 1
Dan Girardi broke a deadlock late in the second period on a night when he passed Mark Messier for 10th on the Rangers’ all-time games played list as New York beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Sunday.
Oscar Lindberg, Kevin Klein and Derick Brassard also scored. The Rangers (6-2-2) have won three of their last five and earned points in all five games.
Antti Raanta made 22 saves in New York’s third of 17 back-to-back sets this season – the Rangers lost to the Philadelphia Flyers in a shootout Saturday night. New York have won six of their past seven against the Flames.
In his 769th game with New York, Girardi scored his first this season to put the Rangers ahead 2-1 with 3:03 left in the second. Recently demoted to the third defence pairing with Keith Yandle, Girardi snuck down to the right circle and snapped a rebound of Emerson Etem’s shot past Jonas Hiller.
Jiri Hudler scored the Flames’ lone goal.
Winnipeg Jets 5, Minnesota Wild 4
Drew Stafford scored twice and Blake Wheeler had two assists as Winnipeg edged Minnesota.
Minnesota’s Jason Zucker scored 10 seconds into the game, but then Winnipeg got five consecutive goals.
Bryan Little tied it 1:22 into the first, Andrew Ladd scored about 2 minutes later and Nikolaj Ehlers made it 3-1 Jets (5-2-1) midway through the period.
Stafford scored 51 seconds into the second, chasing Wild goalie Darcy Kuemper. Stafford scored again on Devan Dubnyk just under 4 minutes later for his team-leading fifth goal this season.
Wheeler extended his season-opening point streak to a franchise-record eight games. Michael Hutchinson made 26 saves for Winnipeg.
Mikko Koivu, Justin Fontaine and Zach Parise also scored for Minnesota (5-2-1).
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