Kings done in by poor second period against Coyotes

As the late John Wooden used to say, never mistake activity for achievement.

The Kings played an effortful game, started energetically, out-shot their opponent and carried play through the entire third period, but still lost to the Arizona Coyotes, 3-2, on Wednesday night at Staples Center.

Defenseman Drew Doughty and center Gabe Vilardi scored for the Kings. Goalie Jonathan Quick made 20 saves, holding the Coyotes in check until an explosive 3½-minute stretch of the second period when the Kings’ heretofore elite penalty kill sagged uncharacteristically.

“Our second-period performance wasn’t very good. We weren’t real sharp for a lot of the night,” said Kings coach Todd McLellan, who felt his team was slow with the puck, especially early on.

Winger Clayton Keller, forward Nick Schmaltz and winger Johan Larsson scored for Arizona. Antti Raanta was tabbed to protect the Coyotes’ net, and turned in a stellar performance making 40 saves. He did not start either of the prior meetings with the Kings but has dominated them over time. He entered Wednesday’s game with a 5-0-1 record, .957 save percentage, 1.32 goals-against average and three shutouts against the Kings in his career.

The third period featured the Kings generating offense and taking some risks, They put the first seven shots of the period on net and out-shot Arizona 18-4 in the final frame.

“It’s not easy to win playing from behind, but it’s easy to dominate the play (when) playing from behind. The team that’s winning has a tendency to sit back,” Doughty said.

A brilliant play at full speed by winger Andreas Athanasiou saw him pass the puck to himself between his legs, recover it, slip it past a defender, receive contact, collect the puck and flip it on goal.

“He’s a guy who skates fast, he can shoot the puck well and he has underrated passing ability,” Vilardi said. “He has great hands. It’s pretty cool, you don’t see that very often.”

Quick was not busy early in the third period, but he made a sprawling, momentum-shifting save on Arizona’s leading scorer Connor Garland with less than seven minutes left. His athletic pad save sent the Kings the other way, and soon after they closed the gap to a single goal.

It was defenseman Mikey Anderson sending a shot from the left point toward the high slot, where it was redirected deftly by Vilardi. The goal was initially credited to Jeff Carter, who was providing a screen in front of Raanta.

After killing a penalty late, the Kings sought the tying goal with Quick pulled, but they were unable to produce any significant threat and failed to earn a point for only the second time in 10 games. The Kings have lost three straight after a six-game winning streak.

Earlier, the game had plenty of intensity and pace but little in the way of flow and nothing in the way of offense for nearly its entire first half.

Then the power play units went to work.

Thirty-four seconds prior to the middle of the game, a failed clearing attempt let the Coyotes cook with some purposeful puck movement. A seam pass for Keller seemed to fool Quick, who looked toward the center of the ice and paused his push across, perhaps thinking there was a deflection of the pass or otherwise losing sight of the puck. It went directly to Keller, whose short-side wrister was his seventh goal of the season.

“Obviously our penalty kill let us down tonight, We made two critical mistakes and they capitalized on them,” McLellan said. “Our overall quarterback rating would be very poor tonight, whether or not it’s the passing part of it or just the clearing part.”

The Kings drew a penalty of their own and knotted the game off some sound, simple plays. Center Anze Kopitar moved the puck to Doughty, who slid it over for winger Adrian Kempe before the puck returned to Doughty for a one-time blast from above the right faceoff circle. The 13-year veteran continued the most productive start to a season of his career with his fourth power-play goal this season, which leads all NHL defensemen.

“I think (my power-play production) is just because I finally got on the flank. I’ve been playing in the middle of the power play for a long time,” Doughty said.

But the Kings again found themselves short-handed and, just 1:41 later, trailing anew as their fifth-ranked penalty kill was touched up for another goal.

Arizona moved into an umbrella formation with Schmaltz shifting high to present himself near the right point. He received the puck high and skated into the faceoff circle to let fly with a wrist shot that reclaimed the lead for the Coyotes. The goal was the third power-play score, including one by the Kings, in a 3:14 span of the second period.

The Coyotes struck again, this time at even strength, a mere 13 seconds later. Quick played the puck to defenseman Olli Maatta, whose pass to forward Michael Amadio failed to connect. Larsson pounced on the loose puck and zipped a shot past Quick before he was completely set and squared to the shooter.

“On the bench, it’s tough. You just get out there and right away they score another one. It’s a double blow,” Vilardi said.

The first period was scoreless with the highlight being consecutive saves of ascending difficulty made by Quick about seven minutes into the contest. He also later made a brilliant poke check effort to foil forward Tyler Pitlick, who had to make last-second adjustments prior to a point-blank shot that sailed over the net. Early in the second period, Quick made a confident glove save on Lawson Crouse’s shot from the slot and, later, a superb backdoor save on Larsson’s backdoor chance.

“We lost the game in the second (period),” Doughty said. “The two (penalty-kill) goals are both preventable. I thought we were sloppy in the second. We weren’t connecting on passes.”

DEWEY ON THE POWER PLAY

Doughty’s power-play goal was the 63rd of his career, which started in 2008. Only Montreal’s Shea Weber (91) has more man-advantage goals among NHL defensemen during that nearly 13-year span.

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