In Buffalo, the Los Angeles Kings’ Anze Kopitar and Michael Amadio each struck for two goals in a 4-2 win Saturday over the Sabres.
“I thought the start of the game was different and was a big reason we won the game,” LA head coach John Stevens said. “I thought we did a lot of good things. It wasn’t just the first line, I thought we had a really good rotation through our lineup where guys were really playing fast, we got pucks up to speed, and we were getting pucks in behind, and we create a lot off our forecheck early in the game, which was good to see.”
The Kings kept pace with the Anaheim Ducks who defeated the Minnesota Wild, 3-2.
The win pushed the Kings to 31-22-5.
Jonathan Quick made 33 saves to pick up the win.
Notably, it was the fist win for LA in Buffalo in 15 years.
“I don’t think we were worried about the 15-year drought in here, but we had a three-game slide that we certainly wanted to stop,” Kopitar said. “I thought today we came out ready to play, and I think in the end we definitely made it a little too interesting for our liking, but it is what it is. The guys battled hard, getting the first goal is huge, and then we followed it up with a few more. I thought it was a pretty good game on our part.”
Buffalo trailed 4-0 heading into the third period and tried to rally to extend the streak on goals from Marco Scandella and Rasmus Ristolainen.
But Quick held them off late for the win.
“If you want to win games and be successful in this league, you’ve got to find a way to get a good start and maintain that for 60 minutes,” the Sabres’ Jason Pominville said. “At no point in time on their side they probably felt any heat early on, maybe a little bit toward the end.”
Buffalo dropped to 17-31-11.
“We started playing our game (in the third period),” Scandella said . “We started getting pucks behind them, playing physical. Once we play our game, when we establish our game, we have a great team here. We move the puck well, we’re fast, but when we don’t do that we look slow, wasting energy, always backchecking and playing defense.”
[WATCH: All Kings vs. Sabres highlights]
Robin Lehner.got the start and suffered through another game with no offensive support; he made 26 saves on 30 shots.
“The one thing we control is our effort and the energy we bring and the compete we bring. If you want to have any type of success, you have to bring that. Some nights we’re just not bringing it, and I really don’t get it. I don’t understand it. You’re playing one of the better teams in, what, the last decade. They’ve won a couple of Cups, they play the right way. They’re heavy, they play physical. I mean, they really took it to us in the first period for sure,” the Sabres’ Jason Pominville said after the loss.
Chad Johnson mopped up in the third with six saves.
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