In Los Angeles, the Kings scored four times in a big second period to help defeat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-3, Saturday.
The Kings’ defense took over the offensive show with three of the goals from Jake Muzzin, Drew Doughty and Christian Ehrhoff.
“Our coach put a lot of emphasis on the [defensemen] kind of jumping in and getting involved in the offense, and we’ve been working on it every day after practice,” Doughty said. “We know we have to do better, and we did a better job of it tonight.”
Milan Lucic scored twice including an empty-netter to seal it.
Chris Kunitz, Olli Maatta and Sidney Crosby scored for the Pens.
“I thought it took us a while to get our feet under us and to really get that compete mentality that you need against a physical team like this, winning battles,” Crosby said. “We got to it eventually. [But] it wasn’t something we established early on.”
Crosby’s goal made it 4-3 early in the third.
Lucic’s goals were his eighth and ninth of the year.
“I thought tonight, that line’s effectiveness was because of [Lucic],” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. “Really, the empty-net goal is the same goal as the wrist-shot goal. It’s a power move. Not many guys can do that.”
Marc-Andre Fleury had 32 saves in the loss and Jonathan Quick made 17 saves.
“Our start wasn’t great and it was kind of catch-up from there,” Crosby said. “Even saying that, I thought we had a number of chances that I thought could have probably tied it, at least. Sometimes things have a way of working themselves out where you don’t deserve it.”
Kunitz added two assists in the loss.
“I felt good,” Maatta said. “I’m happy to be back out there. But I don’t think we were good enough today. As a team, everybody has to do a better job, for sure.”
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