In Los Angeles Saturday night, the Kings’ Darcy Kuemper got a rare start and made 24 saves to help the Kings defeat the Florida Panthers, 4-0.
Jonny Brodzinski, (his first NHL career goal), Tyler Toffoli, Andy Andreoff, and Trevor Lewis scored for the Kings.
“He (Brodzinski) went back and really seemed to get his game in order,” Kings head coach John Stevens said. “He is really starting to play with the pace that he can play with, and what we’ve seen now since he’s come back he’s a lot more confident young man. You do the work, you do the preparation, and confidence seems to come with it. That was a big-time play he made tonight, but it’s kind of what we thought Jonny was capable of so, it’s good to see.”
With the win, the Kings ended a dismal four-game skid and improved to 12-6-2.
“We want to win every game, but, definitely, when you got a case of the skids you want to kick it in the butt as soon as you can,” Kuemper said. “It’s obviously a huge step for us, and now we just [have] to get back to playing our game.”
The Panthers had enough push during the game but could not solve Kuemper.
“It wasn’t a bad road game by us in a tough building against a desperate team who hasn’t won in a while,” Panthers head coach Bob Boughner said. “I thought we held our own. We just needed a bounce.”
[WATCH: All Panthers vs. Kings highlights]
James Reimer made 16 saves in taking the loss that snapped a two-game streak of sorts for the Panthers.
Florida did not crowd the low slot to make the sight lines difficult.
“From our point of view, I don’t think we played hard enough in the crease. There were times when we could have got to the net, gotten pucks to the net, and made it a little harder on them,” the Panthers’ Nick Bjugstad said after the game.
You must be logged in to post a comment.