Kempe scores twice, Kings edge Lightning to end 4-game skid
Anton Forsberg made 31 saves for the Kings (15-10-9), who were 0-2-2 in their previous four games.
Oliver Bjorkstrand scored for the Lightning (18-13-3), who have lost three straight (0-2-1). Andrei Vasilevskiy, who returned after missing the past eight games with an undisclosed injury, made 18 saves.
Bjorkstrand gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead on the power play at 12:54 of the first period after Anthony Cirelli found him open in the low slot. Forsberg stopped the first shot, and Bjorkstrand put the rebound five-hole.
Kempe tied it 1-1 at 5:21 of the second period when he skated into the offensive zone and beat Vasilevskiy with a long-distance wrist shot from between the circles.
Los Angeles went up 2-1 at 15:58 of the second period. Kempe intercepted a pass from Tampa Bay forward Pontus Holmberg in the Kings’ defensive zone, skated down the ice and scored on a short breakaway with a backhand deke around Vasilevskiy’s left pad for his second goal.
Forsberg preserved the one-goal lead early in the third period when he swept the puck away from rolling into the net after a shot from Lightning forward Zemgus Girgensons squeaked through his left arm.
Cirelli left the game after colliding with Los Angeles forward Kevin Fiala at 6:15 of the third.
Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov was a late scratch because of illness.
