In Ottawa, the Los Angeles Kings took a 3-0 lead on the Senators before the midway point of the second period on Thursday.
“I feel like we’ve always been a good road team ever since I came into the League,” the Kings’ Adrian Kempe said. “Obviously, now we have a little bit more of a swagger. … We think we’re a good road team and we can come into any building and get points.”
They then had to hold off Ottawa for a 3-2 win.
Cam Talbot made 24 saves, in his return to Ottawa, for the win.
The Kings improved to 6-2-2.
“I think calm and stable are two pretty good words to describe him,” Los Angeles coach Todd McLellan said of Talbot. “He’s good at cleaning up our messes. We let a lot on the early penalty kill, but after that, it wasn’t a lot coming at him over and over again. But when they did, they’re a dangerous team and he was there to mop everything up.”
They are unbeaten on the road this season.
LA took a 1-0 lead at 3-11 of the first on a power play strike by Phillip Danault,.
“We’re just rolling the lines and we can trust everyone on the ice, whether it’s defensively or offensively,” Danault said. “Our [defensemen] have been really good, and our goalie has been outstanding. He’s giving us a chance to win every game.”
In the middle frame, the Kings tacked on two more goals for the big lead.
Carl Grundstrom scored at 5:00 in the middle frame for qa 2-0 advantage to LA.
Anze Kopitar ballooned the lead to 3-0 at 8:55 of the second.
“The trust factor is high amongst linemates and pairs, the team as a whole,” McLellan said. “We have a pretty good idea of how we need to play. Sometimes bounces don’t go your way. Their second goal hits [Kopitar] in the face and a little bit of bad luck, but for the most part, I think we can play tight, uncomfortable games.”
With 21 seconds left in the middle frame, Dominik Kubalik trimmed the deficit to 3-1 for Ottawa.
“The mistakes we made that went in the net are just mistakes,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “That isn’t talent-based. That’s bad reads or not enough poise or what have you. … For us to win games, you can use [being] short-handed as an excuse, but that isn’t going to fix anything. We’re going to have to be airtight defensively.”
In the third stanza, Josh Norris scored at 4:09 to get the game to a one-goal affair, but that was as close as Ottawa would get.
Joonas Korpisalo made 35 saves in the loss.
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