Filip Hallander's first career goal sparks Penguins' comeback win over Kings

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Filip Hallander scored his first career goal to give Pittsburgh the lead and the Penguins rallied to beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 on Thursday night.

Hallander, playing in his seventh NHL game, jammed in Rickard Rakell’s rebound at the near post for the short-handed goal at 6:50 of the third period to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 lead in the second game of a three-game California swing.

Evgeni Malkin, Connor Dewar and Sidney Crosby also scored, and Arturs Silovs made 30 saves for the Penguins.

Warren Foegele and Kevin Fiala scored in the first period to give the Kings a 2-0 lead after one, but LA lost its third in a row. Anton Forsberg made 22 saves.

The Penguins scored goals 41 seconds apart in the second period to tie it at 2-all, as Malkin kick-started the push back on the power play.

It was the 1,000th career game together for the Pittsburgh tandem of Crosby — who picked up a late empty-netter — and Kris Letang, making them the seventh NHL forward-defenseman duo to share the ice in that many games.

Despite being forced to shuffle three of their lines because of the absence of center Anze Kopitar, who is day to day with a lower-body injury, the Kings got off to their best first period of the season.

However, Los Angeles couldn’t overcome its leaky defense and penchant for committing unnecessary penalties.

In addition to being without their captain, the Kings were also missing starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper because of a lower-body injury. Forsberg was backed up by Pheonix Copley, who returned to Los Angeles on Wednesday in a trade with Tampa Bay.

Penguins: Visit San Jose on Saturday.

Kings: Host Carolina on Saturday.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl