By Mary Walsh
LOS ANGELES– The San Jose Sharks lost 7-2 to the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday. Adrian Kempe scored a hat trick, Quinton Byfield scored twice, Erik Haula and Joel Armia also scored for Los Angeles. Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves for the win. Macklin Celebrini and Ivar Stenberg scored for San Jose. Yaroslav Askarov made 20 saves in the loss.
Adrian Kempe scored his first goal 1:23 into the game. Kempe caught a long pass from Artemi Panarin for a breakaway goal. Kempe scored again at 16:09. His slap shot came from the right faceoff circle. Assists went to Erik Gustafsson and Brandt Clarke.
Quinton Byfield made it 3-0 with a power play goal at 18:39. His snap shot came from low in the slot. Assists went to Panarin and Kempe.
The Kings outshot the Sharks 13-11 in the first period. Each team had two power plays in the period. The Sharks power play mustered three shots and allowed one to the Kings. Their penalty kill allowed four shots and the goal.
Macklin Celebrini scored on the power play at 5:07 of the second period. Celebrini’s wrist shot came from above the left faceoff circle. Assists went to Dmitry Orlov and Michael Misa.
Erik Haula scored at 11:10 to make it 4-1. Haula backhanded it in with Joel Armia screening Askarov. Assists went to Kenny Connors and Brian Dumoulin.
Kempe completed his hat trick with a power play goal at 15:51. His snap shot came from just inside the right faceoff dot. Assists went to Alex Laferriere and Panarin.
The Sharks outshot the Kings 10-5 in the second period. Each team took one penalty. It did not take either team many shots to score on the power play. The Sharks scored with one, the Kings with two.
Joel Armia tipped Erik Haula’s shot to score at 2:12 of the third to make it 6-1.
Ivar Stenberg scored his fourth of the season on the power play at 9:41. His shot came from the top of the left faceoff circle. Almost a mirror of Celebrini’s goal, assists went to Orlov and Misa.
Byfield scored his second of the night on the power play at 14:28. Byfield tipped Panarin’s shot from the blue line. An assist also went to Erik Gustafsson.
The Sharks next play on Friday at 5:00 PM PT in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild.
