Even the best penalty-killing teams in the NHL are going to give up goals if they’re called on too many times.
The San Jose Sharks were forced to kill a season-high six penalties Thursday and allowed a power-play goal to Anze Kopitar in the second period in what became a 3-0 loss to the host Los Angeles Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
Phillip Danault also scored a second-period goal for the Kings, who beat the Sharks for the first time in four tries this season as the two teams completed their season series.
San Jose had won the three other meetings with Los Angeles this season by a combined score of 15-5 and was looking for the first-ever season sweep of its Southern California rivals.
The Sharks had killed 38 of 39 penalties in 13 games since the NHL all-star break before Thursday and had the NHL’s second-best penalty kill behind Calgary at 87%. But on the Kings’ power-play goal, a failed clearing attempt by Brent Burns went to Sean Durzi, who found Kopitar for a high shot that got past goalie James Reimer’s blocker.
Reimer made 24 saves for the Sharks, who had their four-game point streak snapped.
The Sharks – when they weren’t killing penalties – created chances to score but couldn’t solve Kings goalie Cal Petersen, who made 29 saves.
Petersen stopped two breakaway chances by Tomas Hertl, and also six saves on the Sharks’ three power-play tries, as San Jose was shut out for the seventh time this season.
In the third period, Timo Meier got a stick on a pass by Nicolas Meloche that was floating over Petersen before Durzi knocked the puck out of mid-air and out of harm’s way.
The Sharks (26-26-8) entered Thursday’s game eight points back of the Vegas Golden Knights for the Western Conference’s second wild-card spot and now have two more games before Monday’s trade deadline, as they host the Colorado Avalanche on Friday and the Arizona Coyotes on Sunday.
“You get three games and you see how it goes,” Sharks coach Bob Boughner said earlier this week. “You may wake up Monday in a situation where you look at the standings a little different than you look at them now.”
Forwards Alexander Barabanov and Andrew Cogliano and defenseman Jaycob Megna are all pending unrestricted free agents and defenseman Jacob Middleton has drawn interest from a handful of teams.
All four players are earning $1 million or less this season, potentially making them attractive targets for cap-strapped teams looking to add depth for a playoff push.
“It’s part of the business,” Cogliano said.”This time of the year when guys are unrestricted, that’s what happens. Their names are out there and if teams can get assets for them, they usually do.”
