Kings Put Just 13 Shots on Goal in a Loss to the Devils

Brett Pesce's first goal of the season broke a 1-1 tie in Newark, and Los Angeles slid to 2-5-2.

The Kings' two-game winning streak is over: the New Jersey Devils won 3-1 on Saturday in Newark, N.J., according to TheSportsDB's final score.

Los Angeles slid to 2-5-2, per Bleacher Report's box score. The number that explains it is 13, the shots on goal the Kings got on Devils goalie Jake Allen, who made 12 saves, the Associated Press reported.

"When you only put up 13 shots, something like that, and I think it was seven after two, it's just not good enough," defenseman Joel Edmundson told LA Kings Insider, the team's own site.

The first period was quiet, with nine shots on goal between the two teams, LA Kings Insider wrote. After that, play tipped toward the Kings' end. "The second period is where it was off the rails again," coach Peter Laviolette told the site. Edmundson said the team hasn't played a good second period for most of the season.

The odd part: the Kings scored first anyway. Scott Laughton came out of the penalty box, took a pass from Adrian Kempe in the slot and beat Allen at 15:57 of the second for his second goal of the season. Anthony Mantha tied it at 18:43, with under 90 seconds left in the period.

Defenseman Brett Pesce broke the tie 8:08 into the third, snapping a shot through traffic for his first goal of the season, the AP reported. New Jersey added an empty-netter at 18:55.

Shots on goal only count pucks that reach the goalie, so 13 doesn't tell the whole story at either end. Anton Forsberg stopped 23 of the 25 shots that got to him, and Edmundson's verdict was blunt: "We've been relying on our goalies way too much."

The Kings did make Allen work once. All About the Jersey, SB Nation's Devils site, wrote that he kicked out the back of his blocker to stop Laughton early in the third, and that a Kings goal at 15:24 was called off for a high stick. L.A. also got a man advantage when the Devils' Timo Meier went to the box for tripping 12:59 into the third, and didn't convert it, the AP reported.

Before the game, the Devils introduced Connor Hellebuyck, the three-time Vezina Trophy winner they'd gotten from Winnipeg on Friday. He didn't play. Remi Poirier, who has never appeared in an NHL game, dressed as Allen's backup, since goalie Nico Daws went to the Jets in the trade, the AP reported. The Kings never made New Jersey's goalie depth an issue.

This was the trip's first loss, after the Kings lost their first six games and then won at Washington and the New York Islanders. The next second period comes Monday at Madison Square Garden, against the Rangers.

Source: bleacherreport.com, retrieved October 25, 2026. Other sources: sports.yahoo.com, lakingsinsider.com, allaboutthejersey.com.