The first 20 minutes of the Washington Capitals' trip to Hollywood started off as a fairy tale, but ended as a nightmare.
Washington's 1-0 lead did not stand up as the Los Angeles Kings scored two unanswered goals in the final 10 minutes to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.
Marcus Johansson opened the scoring just 1:34 into the game. Mike Knuble started the rush off a blocked shot in the defensive zone and fed Johansson has he cut down center ice. This set up a 2-on-1 between Johansson and Knuble, but the former elected to shoot instead of pass and his low wrist shot beat Jonathan Bernier for his eighth goal of the season. It was Johansson's first goal since December 28 and Washington's first road first period goal since December 5.
Kyle Clifford, however, did not give the Caps much time to hold onto that moral victory when he tied the game at 1-1 about 10 minutes later. Tomas Vokoun stopped Trent Hunter's shot, but allowed a big rebound, which Clifford controlled and slid past Vokoun with a backhand for his second goal of the season at 11:41.
Anze Kopitar gave Los Angeles the lead right before the buzzer at 19:26. Dustin Brown used a lift check to swipe the puck from Brooks Laich as the latter attempted to clear the zone. Brown then simply turned around and fed Kopitar for the easy tip-in goal. It was Kopitar's 12th goal of the season.