In Chicago Monday night, the Los Angeles Kings’ Jonathan Quick made 27 saves en route to a 3-1 win over the Blackhawks.
“We got a win,” Quick said. “Tough building to play in against a really good team. You take the two points and move on. We’ve got another tough building against another good team tomorrow, so we’ve got to get ready for that now.”
The win was crucial for the Kings who trail playoff spots by two points (third place in the Pacific) and three points (second wild card spot).
LA improved to 32-22-5.
Torrey Mitchell, Andy Andreoff and Dion Phaneuf struck for the Kings’ goals.
“I thought we had a really, really good start, obviously,” LA’s Anze Kopitar said. “Arguably one of the best periods that we’ve played this year, that first period. And then second period, find a way to get a power-play goal, give us a little cushion. Third period, you’ve got to give them credit. They made plays. Could we have played better? Yes, but at the end of the day, we got two points.”
On the other side of the ice, the Blackhawks have lost none of their 10 games and dropped to 25-27-8.
“It’s disappointing,” the Blackhawks’ Jordan Oesterle said. “We came out flat. First two periods were unacceptable on our part tonight. We did all we could in the third period to try to climb back. We put ourselves in such a big hole in the first two periods. It’s just unacceptable.”
There does not appear to be much desperation in the Chicago effort.
“Every game right now, we’ve just got to bear down right now. We’re battling for a playoff spot so every point counts. We’ve got another big game tomorrow in Winnipeg, so hopefully we can regroup and get ready for tomorrow,” Andreoff said after the win.
[WATCH: All Kings vs. Blackhawks highlights]
Anton Forsberg made 29 saves in taking the loss.
“Every season has ups and downs and different obstacles. These last couple of weeks have been maybe as hard as it gets. But nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. You’ve got to be a pro and keep fighting through it, keeping playing hard every night, and unfortunately, we didn’t do that tonight,” Chicago’s Patrick Sharp said.
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