A night outplaying but losing to the New York Rangers, the Los Angeles Kings dug a little deeper and defeated the New Jersey Devils, 3-1.
Peter Budaj made 24 saves for the win that snapped a four-game skid.
Kyle Quincey scored the Devils only goal of the game.
Cory Schneider got the for New Jersey but only made it through the first period as he yielded three goals on just 12 shots.
As has become habit in the NHL, starting goalies are now easy to give the hook and Keith Kinkaid finished up the game for the Devils who fell to 20-20-9.
“It wasn’t so much about Cory as it was the team,” Devils coach John Hynes said. “We gave up three quick goals and [Kinkaid] has played well so we switched it up. I thought Keith came in and did a good job.”
On a night when Jeff Carter did not score for LA, the Kings got goals from Anze Kopitar, Tanner Pearson and Alec Martinez.
“It’s nice to get back on board the winning side for a change,” Pearson said. “We’d been struggling here a bit so this one’s big. Hopefully we can carry it into out next game.”
Kopitar contributing to the scoresheet was welcome.
“I think I’ve been lacking in the shooting part of my game and I want to be a little bit more aggressive,” Kopitar said. “Part of that is attacking off the half wall. I had some room and tried to get it on net and fortunate for me, it went in.”
WATCH: All Kings vs. Devils highlights
“He’s (Kopitar) one of the best players in the League,” Sutter said. “He’s on that level with [Jonathan] Toews and [Patrice] Bergeron, guys like that. He’s an awesome player. Other than the goal scoring, I’ve had no problem with him.”
The Devils have been unable to get much traction this season with winning streaks followed by momentum killing losses and skids.
“We could have scored on our first shift and didn’t, took a penalty and ended up chasing the game a little bit. We had ample opportunity to get ourselves back in the game but didn’t have any puck luck to get it in the back of the net,” Hynes said.
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