PHILADELPHIA – Once again the Los Angeles Kings were rescued by Jeff Carter who scored midway through extra time in a 1-0 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Saturday afternoon.
It was Peter Budaj who got the Kings to overtime as he made 17 saves for seventh shutout of the season, and the league lead in that statistic.
“I know it’s a cliche but it’s really how I try to approach the game, just try to take it one game at a time,” Budaj said. “It’s a [Stanley Cup] Playoff race right now. We need to get as many points as possible. I try to go out there, don’t think too much, don’t think about what people think about me, what’s going to happen, where we are in the standings. Just try to make the next save so we can help the team win the game and move up the standings. That’s the key for me. I’m enjoying it. This is great. It’s amazing and I’m very excited and very thankful for this. So far it’s been a great year for me but there’s still a long way to go.”
For Carter, it was 27th goal of the season, second in the NHL.
“To be honest with you, if he (Budaj( wasn’t playing how he is, we wouldn’t be in the position we are,” Carter said.
WATCH: All Kings vs. Flyers highlights
“We were confident we were going to score a goal. He [Neuvirth] played awesome obviously but [the Flyers are] one of the top in the League in letting goals in so we knew one was going to come,” LA’s Drew Doughty
Michal Neuvirth made 27 saves in absorbing the loss for the Flyers who dropped to 26-20-6.
“He was great,” Flyers center Sean Couturier said. “He made a few big saves. Especially that open net there [on Brown]. He did that a few times tonight where he saved us. That’s the type of thing we need from a goalie and it’s too bad we couldn’t respond for him.”
Budaj has a shutout streak of 144:05 going and the Kings have won five straight and improved to 27-21-4 with the win.
“I thought from the drop of the puck we worked hard. We battled pretty hard together. We played a pretty good hockey game. Effort-wise, absolutely, the guys left it all out there. … We talked about it and it was a good effort. Of course we wanted to get the second point, because the second point is critical. But it was a hard-fought game all the way through,” Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said of his team’s effort in the loss.
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