Martin Frk scores twice in debut to jump start rally in victory over Sharks
Martin Frk hasn’t been in Los Angeles long, yet he’s already made quite an impression.
Frk scored two third-period goals in his debut with the Kings, and Jeff Carter scored the winner in overtime and also had an assist as Los Angeles rallied to beat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 on Friday night.
Frk scored his first goal early in the third and cut a two-goal Sharks lead in half. He tied it with another score with 1:24 left in regulation.
Carter scored the winner at 1:31 of overtime when he picked up a loose puck in front of the crease and fired it past Aaron Dell, who had just stopped a shot by Alex Iafallo.
“Nice to see Marty Frk come up and contribute, use his tools,” Kings coach Todd McClellan said. “That shot that he has and the ability to find ice was real important and a good aggressive play in overtime got us the win.”
Jack Campbell had 22 saves as the Kings snapped a three-game skid.
Highlights from the Kings’ overtime win over the Sharks on Friday.
The 26-year-old Frk, who signed with the Kings as an unrestricted free agent on July 1, was recalled from Ontario of the WHL on Monday. He was playing in his 101st career NHL game (98 with Detroit, and two with Carolina).
Frk scored both goals from the slot.
He blasted in his first goal off a backhanded pass from Nikolai Prokhorkin, and tied it after receiving a backhanded pass from Carter.
“I got lucky,” Frk said. “I was twice in the good spot and it went in, so I’m really happy for that, couldn’t ask for anything better.”
Kings forward Trevor Lewis was placed on injured reserve with upper-body injury, and Dustin Brown didn’t travel with the team because of illness.
Joe Thornton snapped a 47-game goal-scoring drought and added an assist for the Sharks, who lost their fourth straight and are 1-9-1 over their last 11.
Thornton hadn’t scored in a regular-season game since March 18 of last season.
“You can’t dress 12 forwards then have eight or nine show up,” Sharks interim coach Bob Boughner said. “That was the problem tonight. We had to shorten our bench. We had a couple guys not sticking with the structure, not playing within the team system. They know who they are. It’s a wake-up call for a couple of guys in that room right now.”
Dell turned back 33 shots for San Jose.
Thornton scored at 11:39 of the second on a backhanded pass from Radim Simek, giving San Jose a 2-0 lead.
Erik Karlsson also scored for San Jose. Karlsson scored on a wrist shot from just inside the blue line at 6:16 of the second. His fourth goal broke a scoreless tie.
Thornton had an assist on Karlsson’s goal, the 1,078th of his career. He needs one more to tie Adam Oates for seventh on the NHL’s all-time list.
“We have a good hockey team,” Karlsson said. “We should be a good hockey team. We’re not a good hockey team right now.
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