Kings edge P{anthers, 2-1 Talbot stops 30 in win

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In Los Angeles, Cam Talbot made 30 saves on Thursday night, and the Kings edged the Florida Panthers, 2-1.

“Tonight, you saw the energy and the drive and the battle and the commitment,” Kings coach Todd McLellan said. “If we get that all the time, we got one [heck] of a player. And it’s there. He’s been a little bit frustrated and we’re trying to help him, but I was proud of him tonight. He made some real good plays and responded well.”

It was only the second home win of the season for the Kings who are 2-3-3 on LA ice.

“It’s no secret that we need to make this building a little tougher to play in, and I think tonight’s a good step in the right direction,” Talbot said.

Kevin FIala scored in the first period to give the Kings a 1-0 lead. The goal came with just 80 seconds gone in the first period.

The lead was pushed to 2-0 at 13:35 of the middle frame off a power play goal from Anze Kopitar.

“Yeah, we were itching to get a goal on the power play too, so nice to get one and I guess it ended up being the game winner, so even better,” Kopitar said.

The Panthers were scoreless on five power play chances.
“Our penalty kill was outstanding,” McLellan said. “I think of it as 6-for-6 because we had another 2 1/2 minutes with the goaltender pulled. Got one on the power play, so usually when you find a way to end up on the positive side of the special teams you have a real good chance of winning the game.”

The Panthers had a five-game win streak snapped in the loss.

Sam Reinhart broke up the shut out bid at 11:45 of the third to trim the deficit to 2-1 for the Panthers, but Talbot backstopped LA to the win.

“We were able to stick with it and kind of get ourselves back to have a fighting chance,” Reinhart said. “You give them credit that they’re a team when they have the lead, it’s not easy to come back on them.”

Florida dropped to 10-5-1.

Sergei Bobrovsky made 25 saves in the loss.