business

Kings’ Viktor Arvidsson completes the hat trick at OT – Press Enterprise

Posted on by admin

By NICOLE KRAFT Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Viktor Arvidsson scored a hat-trick after four minutes of overtime to give the Kings a 4-3 win over the hard-hitting Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday night.

“I think I’ve been creating shots and chances all season and just couldn’t bring them in and tonight they went in,” said Arvidsson, who has three goals in four games in his career. “That was a good feeling.”

Dustin Brown also scored and Jonathan Quick made 26 stops to help the Kings end a two-game losing streak and win for the eighth time in 11 games. They have come back from a two-goal deficit for the third time in eight games.

“I thought the boys stuck with it,” said King’s interim coach Trent Yawney, who was again standing in for Todd McLellan (COVID-19 protocols). “Brownie’s goal was a big goal. I think there was some kind of relief on the bench and they could sense that maybe there was an opportunity.

“[McLellan]just texted me and said they don’t want to do it the easy way. There is a lot of character in the room. It made sure we weren’t trying to chase it too fast and do our thing.”

Patrik Laine, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Justin Danforth scored for Columbus in a franchise-record 46 seconds in the second period, and Elvis Merlikins stopped 39 shots. The Blue Jackets had won twice in a row.

Arvidsson opened the scoring with six minutes remaining in the second period with a right circle wrister that punched up Merzlikins.

“It’s nice to have him on your team,” Yawney said of Arvidsson. “He’s an opportunist, he has great clearance for his shot. He scored three goals, he hit the crossbar and hit the post, it haunted him a bit and it was a nice move in overtime too.”

Columbus countered with the three-goal burst, with Laine scoring with 4:26 left, Bjorkstrand with 4:01 left and Danforth with 3:40 left.

Brown’s dribble through Merzlikins’ pads made it 3-2 after 3:49 of game three, and the Kings equalized with 3:46 left on Arvidsson’s second goal of the night.

“Difficult,” said Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen. “The boys played hard. When we got through the first period I thought we improved our game. That’s a good hockey team we played against. (We are) disappointed to lose this one.”

Boone Jenner appeared to have won it for Columbus by 2:56 in overtime, but the goal was disallowed for offside.

Columbus has lost eight goals this season to offside situations. When asked for an analysis, Larsen replied: “I’m done talking about offside. There is nothing left to dissect. We have gone sideways. You took it back.”

CANCEL

.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *