LOS ANGELES — After learning that they will be without right wing Justin Williams for three months, the Los Angeles Kings dropped their third straight game, this time, a 4-3 loss to the Minnesota Wild in front of a disappointed sell-out crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center on Monday night.
Former Kings center Eric Belanger scored two goals, including the game-winner at 17:43 of the third period, and added an assist, while goaltender Niklas Backstrom stopped 29 shots to lead the Wild to the victory.
Drew Doughty, Jack Johnson and Scott Parse, who was recalled from the Manchester Monarchs of the American Hockey League (Kings’ primary minor league affiliate) earlier in the day, scored for the Kings.
Jonathan Quick stopped nineteen shots in the loss, and allowed a soft goal to Martin Havlat early in the second period.
Williams underwent successful ankle surgery earlier in the day to repair a broken fibula (Kings head coach Terry Murray said that he had a broken leg on December 26) and torn ligaments in his right ankle.
Audio Interviews (raw, unedted)
Matt Greene (0:58)
Anze Kopitar (3:06)
Dustin Brown (1:37)
Terry Murray (8:24)
Scott Parse (1:09)
Teddy Purcell (2:40)
Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube:
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saw the game. VERY dissappointing loss. Kings need to wake up.
Say it isn’t so…What’s happening to the team? Is it becuz of injuries?
Injuries are playing a part, but the larger issues involve losing too many face-offs, the penalty-kill hasn’t been all that good, they’re back to giving up too many high-quality scoring chances despite getting rock-solid goaltending from Jonathan Quick, they are losing way too many physical battles and foot races for loose pucks and they’re not getting enough traffic in front of opposing goaltenders to obstruct his view.