Tanner Pearson missed his spot on his shoot-out attempt. Luckily for him, so did Jacob Markstrom.
Pearson scored for the fourth time this season and got the lone shoot-out goal, lifting the Los Angeles Kings over the previously unbeaten Vancouver Canucks 4-3 on Saturday night.
Pearson fired from the right hash marks and beat Markstrom between the legs.
Photo: Jake Roth, USA TODAY Sports
“I’ll admit, that was a missed shot,” Pearson said. “I was trying to go high and kind of fanned on it and had to go five-hole.”
Peter Budaj was pressed into service after Jeff Zatkoff injured his groin in the morning skate and stopped 22 shots for his second straight win. Budaj played in his 300th NHL game and is the third goalie the Kings have used this season.
Jonathan Quick also injured his groin in the season opener in San Jose and is expected to miss the next three months.
Budaj joined the Kings on a two-way deal last season and played mostly in the minors. The 34-year-old appeared in just one game in the NHL last season, but now figures to get more work after going three for three in the shoot-out.
Alexander Edler tied it during a power play with 34.4 seconds left in the third period.
The Kings had a power play for the final 1 minutes, 16 seconds of overtime, but Markstrom made two key saves to send it into a shoot-out. Markstrom made 28 saves.
Brayden McNabb and Dustin Brown also scored while Los Angeles built a 3-0 lead, but the Canucks rallied to force overtime for the fourth time in five games this season. Vancouver are 4-0-1, including three wins after trailing going into the third period.
This time, Markus Granlund scored 8 minutes, 40 seconds into the second period and Henrik Sedin got a goal with 4 minutes, 3 seconds left in the second to cut the deficit to 3-2, setting up Edler’s equalizer on a wrist shot from the left point.
Pearson’s shoot-out goal came on a wrist shot from the right hash marks, beating Markstrom five-hole.
McNabb scored 4 minutes, 35 seconds into the first when he banked a wrist shot off the crossbar and behind Markstrom.
Pearson scored with 1 minute, 36 seconds left in the first when Markstrom failed to cleanly glove Alec Martinez’s point shot and Pearson knocked in the rebound.
The Kings scored again 33 seconds into the next period when Markstrom lost his footing in the crease and let Brown poke in a rebound for a shorthanded goal. Brown also had two assists.
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