After 1 at Ottawa: Kings 1, Senators 1

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The first period had some odd momentum swings and a few strange moments but the teams finished the period even at 1-1.

After a rare Ryan Smyth fight—he had hit Alexei Kovalev inside the Kings’ blue line and Chris Campoli took exception—the Kings got a power play and—no surprise—didn’t score. But soon after the Kings took a bad offensive-zone penalty, when Wayne Simmonds tripped Milan Michalek, and the Senators capitalized for a 1-0 lead.

That was an odd play, too. The Kings lost a faceoff in their zone and the puck came back to the blue line. Chris Phillips passed to Sergei Gonchar, whose shot was blocked in the slot. But the puck rebounded to Kovalev, whose shot was so ferocious it sheared off the blade of his stick. The puck went past Jonathan Quick and the blade went to the corner, at the 10-minute mark.

The goal was Kovalev’s 1,000th NHL point. No tally of broken sticks was available.

The Kings pulled even at 16:17, with the help of a poor pass by Senators center Jason Spezza. He was skating up the left side breaking out of the zone but instead of passing to a teammate he gave the puck to Anze Kopitar, who skated in until he was about 30 feet out before ripping a shot past Pascal Leclaire.

The Kings thought they had a goal with 44.2 seconds left but it was waved off upon review. Simmonds’ close-in shot crossed the goal line but not until after the net had come off its moorings. Even though Matt Carkner appeared to have deliberately lifted the net off its place, the goal was nullified. The latter call is a judgment call and isn’t reviewable.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports
Helene Elliott, in Ottawa