Vincent Trocheck scored for the Rangers (28-31-8), who had their season-high four-game winning streak end. Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves.
“We’ve played some good hockey leading up to this and a bad 30 minutes cost us,” Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said.
Drew Doughty gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead at 13:29 of the first period with a shot through traffic that beat Shesterkin. Panarin got the secondary assist on the play, passing the puck back to Anderson, who then found Doughty.
Panarin, who received a video tribute and ovation from the crowd during the first television timeout, had 607 points (205 goals, 402 assists), ninth in Rangers history, in 482 regular-season games. He led the Rangers in scoring in each of his six full seasons and led them before the trade with 57 points (19 goals, 38 assists) in 52 games.
“Emotional, especially warmup,” Panarin said. “When the game started, that was better. … Since I stepped on ice, and I saw all those (Panarin) jerseys. I felt good about that. It means for me a lot, I spent almost seven years here.”
The Kings scored twice in a span of 28 seconds in the second period, when they outshot the Rangers 16-3.
“We played well in the first, played well in the third,” Trocheck said. “You just have to play a full 60 minutes to win games in the NHL. … You just can’t have letdowns like that in an entire period.”
Anderson made it 2-0 at 4:31, scoring off a rebound at the side of the net following a Laferriere shot.
Laferriere then scored on the power play to give the Kings a 3-0 lead at 4:59 by batting the puck out of the air at the side of the net.
“Second period was really good. We pressed hard, we were physical. We made it really hard,” Los Angeles coach D.J. Smith said. “… Just all-around a gutsy effort by the guys at the end of the trip.”
