Kings vs. Senators: Quinton Byfield Wins It in Overtime After Los Angeles Blows a Four-Goal Lead

Quinton Byfield had not scored since the second game of the season. Thursday night he picked the loudest possible moment to change that, and the Kings needed every bit of the noise, because they had just spent the third period trying to give the game away.

Byfield buried a snap shot from the high slot 3:37 into overtime and the Los Angeles Kings outlasted the Ottawa Senators 6-5 at crypto.com Arena. It was the Kings' first home win of the season, it opened a seven-game homestand, and it came after Los Angeles turned a 5-1 lead into a 5-5 tie in a little over 11 minutes. Two points are two points. Nobody in that building will remember them as easy ones.

A Blowout, Then a Horror Sequel

Ottawa actually scored first. Defenseman Tyler Kleven sneaked down into the slot and tucked a backhand past Darcy Kuemper at 11:24 of the first, with Fabian Zetterlund and Tim Stützle setting it up. The Kings got even on their first power play when Erik Haula redirected a Brandt Clarke point shot at 15:09, and it was 1-1 after one.

Then the second period turned into a Kings demolition. Byfield threaded a backhand pass to Trevor Moore, who tipped it in at 6:51 for a 2-1 lead, his first goal since Opening Night according to the Kings. Mikey Anderson unloaded a slap shot from the point at 10:17, and Joel Armia scored on his own 37 seconds later. That was it for Jonas Johansson, who allowed four goals on 16 shots before Samuel Ersson came on.

The game got nasty 21 seconds after Armia's goal. Ottawa's Hayden Hodgson was ejected with a game misconduct for boarding Clarke, who left with an upper-body injury and did not come back. The Kings eventually earned a two-man advantage, rang the post twice on it, and then let Artemi Panarin settle matters with a snap shot at 15:43, his team-leading eighth goal. Five to one after 40 minutes. Fans could start planning the drive home.

They should have waited. Dylan Cozens finished a Stützle feed at 7:18 of the third, and Drake Batherson scored 33 seconds after that on a Jake Sanderson assist. Suddenly it was 5-3. At 12:34, with Ottawa on the power play, a loose puck dribbled through the crease and Cozens poked it over the line to make it 5-4. Ersson went to the bench for an extra attacker, Batherson put the puck in front, and Shane Pinto deflected it past Kuemper with 1:40 left. Four unanswered goals, a 5-5 game, and a crowd that had gone very, very quiet.

Byfield and Doughty Carry It; Ottawa's Top Guys Nearly Steal It

Byfield finished with a goal and an assist in 20:33, and he won 13 of his 22 faceoffs, which matters a lot more when the other team is pressing for a tying goal. Per the Kings, his helper on Moore's goal was his first point since the second game of the season, a stretch that included an upper-body injury he suffered in Washington on Oct. 20. He made up for lost time in one night, and the second point was the one that decided it.

Drew Doughty was the quiet engine of the whole thing. He assisted on Haula's power-play goal, on Moore's go-ahead goal and on the overtime winner, a three-assist night in 22:54 that pushed him to six helpers on the season. Panarin added a goal and an assist in 24:07 and keeps looking like the team's most dangerous finisher.

On the other side, Stützle was terrific in a losing effort. He assisted on Kleven's opener and on both Cozens goals, giving him three assists and 11 on the season. Cozens arrived with one goal on the year and left with three, plus an assist on the tying goal. Batherson had a goal and two helpers, and Sanderson logged 29:17 with five blocked shots. The Senators' best players did everything except win.

Kuemper made 17 saves on 22 shots. Johansson stopped 12 of 16, and Ersson made 20 saves on 22 in relief.

Doughty Holds the Puck, Byfield Holds the Moment

Three-on-three overtime tends to punish the team that gets impatient, and Los Angeles had every reason to be rattled. Instead, Doughty parked at the right point with the puck on his stick, let Los Angeles finish a line change without giving it away, then hit Byfield in stride as he came off the bench and through the slot. One pass, one snap shot, and the panic of the previous 20 minutes vanished.

The bigger swing, though, was the 33 seconds in the third when Cozens and Batherson scored back to back. Before that, the third period was shaping up as garbage time. After it, the Senators played like they had already read the last page and liked how it ended. They were right about the comeback and wrong about the ending.

The Numbers Behind the Meltdown

• 38-22: The Kings' shot advantage, which explains why this never should have needed overtime.
• 4: Unanswered Ottawa goals in the third period, from Cozens twice, Batherson and Pinto.
• 2 for 7: The Kings' power play, with both goals coming before the collapse. Ottawa went 1 for 4.
• 35-18: Penalty minutes, Ottawa's way, a total that includes Hodgson's game misconduct.
• 37-27: Hits, also in Ottawa's favor, as the Senators leaned on the Kings all night.

A Pulse in LA, a Point for Ottawa

Los Angeles is now 4-6-2 with 10 points, and that 1-3-0 home record finally has a number in the left column. The Kings have won four of their last six after a start that had them at 0-4-2, and they bounced back from a 2-1 loss in Chicago on Tuesday. The homestand continues Saturday against Buffalo, and head coach Peter Laviolette now has plenty of teaching tape on how not to protect a 5-1 lead.

Ottawa sits at 8-5-1 with 17 points and banked a point on a night it trailed by four, which is a decent consolation prize. But the Senators have not won consecutive games since Oct. 12, and this trip opened with a 4-1 loss in Vegas on Tuesday. They head to San Jose on Saturday, and the Sharks beat them 6-2 in Ottawa just last week.

Don't Go in the Basement

It is Halloween weekend, so let's call this what it was: a horror movie in which the Kings kept walking back into the dark basement after everyone in the audience yelled at them not to. Byfield found the light switch. Next time, Los Angeles might want to skip the basement entirely.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press and the LA Kings on nhl.com.