In Sunrise Thursday night, Jeff Carter got back to scoring, this time netting two goals in a 6-3 win for the Los Angeles Kings over the Florida Panthers.
- Jeff Carter had 2 goals and assist in win over Florida – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
The Kings needed some offense to get out of the funk they have been on this road trip.
“It’s nice,” Carter said. “We don’t get it too often. We’re typically a pretty low-scoring, tight-checking team. It’s nice to see the guys get rewarded. The last couple of games we got it handed to us pretty good, but we still had a lot of chances but just weren’t able to bury them. So it’s nice to see them go in the net.”
They also needed to keep pace with teams ahead of them winning on Thursday night including the Anaheim Ducks .
Peter Budaj finally was able to relax a bit with more offensive support and made 36 saves to get the win.
“I’m glad after the goal slump that we had, we scored six,” Budaj said. “It was great. Guys played great in front of me and made my job much easier when we had the lead.”
Carter added two assists on the night with helpers on goals from Dustin Brown and Tyler Toffoli.
“When you get some goaltending, get the first save and score the first goal, it makes it a lot easier,” Kings head coach Darryl Sutter said of the early offensive success.
Tanner Pearsonand Dwight King also scored for the Kings as more balance was added to the attack.
“I think everything is there, it’s just the last couple of games we couldn’t score. You lose 5-0 twice in a row, it kind of gives you a kick in the butt. When we give ourselves the first goal, we’re pretty confident playing with that lead,” Pearson said.
Jussi Jokinen and Jonathan Marchessault scored for the Panthers and Aleksander Barkov added a window-dressing goal in the final minute.
James Reimer got the hook as the starter for Florida after Toffoli made it 3-1; he yielded three goals on just 14 shots.
WATCH: All Kings vs. Panthers highlights
- Peter Budaj had 36 saves in win in Florida – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Roberto Luongo relieved Reimer and allowed three goals as well and was also given the hook after the Kings made the score 6-1.
“It’s one of those games,” Panthers coach Tom Rowe said. “It wasn’t pretty, everyone knows it wasn’t pretty, and we’re going to forget about it. We can’t dwell on it. It was a bad game from start to the end of it.”
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