James Reimer helped the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 4-3 shootout win over Los Angeles on Sunday, shutting out the Kings in the tiebreaker.
Joffrey Lupul scored the lone goal for Toronto in the shootout. Tyler Bozak was denied by Jonathan Quick, and Mike Santorelli missed.
Reimer turned away Marian Gaborik and Dustin Brown before Anze Kopitar missed for Los Angeles.
The Kings rallied from a 2-0 deficit and led 3-2 in the third before the Leafs forced the overtime.
Toronto has won five straight and is 9-1-1 since a 9-2 loss to visiting Nashville on Nov. 18. The Leafs also improved to 13-0 when scoring the first goal.
The Kings outshot the Leafs 33-30 in regulation.
Marian for three pic.twitter.com/K0N6KTPg2H
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 15, 2014
Santorelli, Cody Franson and James van Riemsdyk scored for Toronto before a crowd of 19,219 on a rare 5 p.m. local time Sunday start.
Justin Williams, Dwight King and Gaborik scored for the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings. Quick finished with 28 saves.
The second period has belonged to Toronto this season with a league-high 41 goals. But Los Angeles jumped on the Maple Leafs for two goals in four minutes, tying it at 2.
Williams trimmed Toronto's lead to 2-1 with his eighth goal at 16:02. He beat Jake Gardiner on a rush, helped somewhat by a lucky bounce, and swept the puck in past Reimer.
King then tied it at 19:46, twisting Cody Franson inside out before sending the puck past Reimer, who thought he had it.
Two pic.twitter.com/M5FMRsAYwp
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 14, 2014
Toronto was outshot 11-6 in the second period.
The Kings went in front 1:02 into the third when Gaborik, taking a slick pass from Williams, beat Reimer on the second try after the goalie stopped the first shot. It was Gaborik's fifth of the season.
The Leafs answered on the power play, with van Riemsdyk redirecting a Franson pass past Quick at 6:49 for his 13th goal.
Former Kings goalie Jonathan Bernier got the night off after helping the Leafs to a 4-1 win over visiting Detroit on Saturday. It was Reimer's second start in 11 games, a stretch that included a stellar 41-save performance in a road win over the Wings on Wednesday.
One pic.twitter.com/tiiaQJYe3N
— LA Kings (@LAKings) December 14, 2014
Santorelli, celebrating his 29th birthday, opened the scoring at 14:00 of the first when he beat Quick high stick-side for his sixth of the season.
Trevor Lewis had a prime scoring opportunity for the Kings late in the period when, with Reimer face down, he hit the bottom of the goalpost and the puck bounced under the goalie.
Franson made it 2-0 with 30 seconds left in the first, floating a shot through traffic from the blue line for his fifth of the season.
Toronto emerged from the period with the lead despite being outshot 11-8 and losing 16 of 20 faceoffs.
Los Angeles had Saturday off in Toronto after back-to-back games Thursday and Friday against Ottawa (a 5-3 win) and Montreal (6-2 loss). The Kings, with one last stop after Toronto on a five-game trip, arrived having lost three of their last four and were 4-5-1 in their last 10.
NOTES: The Leafs and Kings meet again on Jan. 12 at Staples Center ... Toronto's Dion Phaneuf and Santorelli came into the game tied for the sixth best plus/minus total in the league at plus-15.
