Kings vs. Golden Knights Game 3: Full highlights, recap and more

The Vegas Golden Knights rode a three-goal flurry in the third period to a Game 3 victory against the LA Kings on Sunday. Here’s how it happened.

First period: Adrenaline and and early power plays for both teams

The game started off like all of them have so far this series, with Vegas flying into the zone and outshooting the Kings early. At 5:33 of the first, Kyle Clifford took a questionable tripping penalty. The Kings looked strong on the kill and Vegas had no shots on goal. Shortly after that, the Knights were hit at 7:55 for too many men on the ice. That power play lasted 14 seconds when Dustin Brown took a penalty off the faceoff for tripping.

The Kings then took the lead. Brown made a backhand pass up the boards to Kopitar, who found Iafallo in front and he roofed it for a 1-0 lead and the first lead of the series. Alex Iafallo was a healthy scratch in Game 2 and made his presence known quickly in Game 3.

Second period: Power play for LA 

The Kings had four shots on the power play and a few quality chances. Jeff Carter nearly potted one from the top of the left slot but Marc-Andre Fleury was up to the task. There was no scoring on the abbreviated power play.

At 3:30 into the period, Vegas finally had some sustained offensive zone pressure with a few quality shots Jonathan Quick easily turned away. At 6:19 James Neal of Vegas was sent to the sin bin for slashing Toffoli.

The power play had three shots but the Kings were unable to put one past Fleury. A scary moment occurred late in the third period when the Knights’ Erik Haula appeared to butt end or at the least hit Anze Kopitar square in the jaw during a play in front of the Kings’ net. No penalty was given on the play and it wasn’t immediately known if Kopitar was put into the concussion protocol.

Haula may be suspended for this if the league has a look at it once the game is over. With three minutes left in the period Kopitar came back to the ice. With 2:03 left in the period, the Kings’ Oscar Fantenberg is called for batting the puck directly over the glass for an automatic penalty for delay of game.

There were physical fireworks as the power play ended as Jonathan Marchessault got popped hard by Drew Doughty and retaliated with a slash. At the end of two periods it remained 1-0 in favor of LA. The hitting continued, with the hit count 37-29 in favor of the Kings.

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Third period: Knights take over

The Kings started the third on a power play, but couldn’t make the man advantage count. At 6:10 of the third period, the Knights got the equalizer as Cody Eakin took a neat little pass from Ryan Carpenter after David Perron’s shot was blocked. Perron was also credited with an assist on the goal.

Just 7:23 into the period, the momentum started to shift and Vegas got a power play on another questionable call on Jake Muzzin, this one for tripping. It looked like William Karlsson embellished on the play.

The best chance for the Knights was a shot by Marchessault that Quick barely got a glove on and the Knights came away without a tally on that power play.  At 14:23, James took a pass from Alex Tuch and made it 2-1 Knights. Schmidt was credited with an assist on the play.

Less than a minute later, Karlsson made it 3-1 on a goal off the faceoff with assists credited to Reilly Smith and Marchessault. At the 14:57 mark, Perron was called for tripping, giving the Kings a little hope to make it a one-goal game.  They didn’t make the most of the power play, but Kopitar scored shortly after to set up a dramatic finish. The Kings pulled Quick with a 1:36 to go but it was to no avail as they fell to the Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 and put the Kings one game from elimination.