LOS ANGELES — Despite blowing a three-goal lead in the third period, Anze Kopitar and Jack Johnson racked up four-point performances to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 6-4 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in front of an announced sell-out crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center on February 4.
The Ducks opened the scoring at 5:40 of the first period, as they took advantage of another sluggish start by the Kings.
The Kings finally woke up about fifteen minutes into the period and they tied the game on Kopitar’s 25th goal of the season at the 18:54 mark.
The two teams tallied just four shots each in the second period, but the Kings scored the only goals.
While a delayed penalty was being called on the Ducks, Kings winger Wayne Simmonds took a centering pass from Kopitar and scored his fourteenth goal of the season at the 1:04 mark.
Center Michal Handzus scored his thirteenth goal of the season with the Kings on the power play at the 17:00 mark, giving the Kings a 3-1 lead going into the third period.
Johnson scored his sixth goal of the season at 1:44 of the third period on a one-time blast from left point with Handzus screening Anaheim goalie Jonas Hiller.
Johnson’s goal gave the Kings a 4-1 lead and tremendous sense of security.
Too much security.
Indeed, the Kings got complacent and gave up three easy goals in a 6:24 span, tying the game, 4-4.
Goals by Troy Bodie, Mike Belesky and Ryan Carter were all scored due to blown defensive coverages and a lot of standing around by the Kings in their own end.
But, like they have so many times this season, the Kings bounced back.
Dustin Brown scored the game-winner, his fourteenth goal of the season, at the 14:28 mark, picking up a rebound in front of a wide open net.
Kopitar scored his second goal of the game on the power play at the 19:33 mark to close out the scoring.
Jonathan Quick won his eighth consecutive game, breaking the record held by Kelly Hrudey and Robb Stauber.
The Kings extended their winning streak to eight games, tying the franchise record for consecutive wins (also done in 1991-92 and 1972-73).
NOTES
- The Kings are 10-1-0 in their last eleven games.
- Kopitar now has an eight-game point streak (seven goals, eight assists for fifteen points), tying a career-high (other eight-game streak was November 28 – December 12, 2007).
- Kopitar’s four-point night (two goals, two assists) ties a career-high (also had four points on February 16, 2009 vs. Atlanta).
- When Kopitar scores a goal the Kings are 17-3-0.
- Johnson’s four point night (goal, three assists) and his three assists are both career-highs.
- Handzus (goal, two assists for three points), Simmonds (goal, assist) and Alexander Frolov (two assists) also had multi-point nights.
- Quick is 13-3-0 in his last sixteen games and is first in the NHL with 33 wins, two short of the Kings single-season record (Mario Lessard had 35 in 1980-81).
- The Kings’ 73 points is the second-best record after 57 games (best record after 57 games is 32-11-14 got 78 points).
- The 2009-10 Kings squad is the fastest to reach 35 wins in franchise history.
- The Kings are tied with Phoenix with 73 points in the standings. But with more wins, the Kings have moved past Phoenix into fourth place in the Western Conference.
- The Kings are 6-for-18 on the power play in the last six games (33.3%).
- The Kings are 22-0-0 when leading after two periods.
- The Kings are 3-0-0 against the Ducks this season and 12-4-1 against the Pacific Division.
Audio Interviews (raw, unedited)
Anze Kopitar (2:37)
Matt Greene (2:23)
Jack Johnson (2:45)
Terry Murray (9:50)
Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube
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odonnels career is not finished just yet, he has looked absolutely fantastic during this winning streak ….. and the randy jones follies continue …… un – be – liev – a – ble
okay great, it looks like possibly harrold will be in for jones tomorrow ….. see i love knowing more than the coach , now if only murray would stick to it and never let jones play again ….. we will see if murrays brain is working properly down the road regarding jones …. keep him out forever terry – forever …. and i do not believe we need to trade for a dman – if we do , fine , but i believe harrold and drewiske are more than capable of handling a sixth dman spot …. now if only dummy lombardi would get rid of ivannis for westgarth we would be in a real good spot …. or if you dont believe westgarth is ready for some reason or want him playing more than 7 minutes a night , so you want him in manch where he can play more …… if those are the reasons for keeping westgarth in manch, then go out and trade for a tough guy to replace ivannis … jamaal mayers would have been perfect …. but there are others out there …. and enforcers can always be had for a bag of pucks