It has not taken long for Jonathan Quick to get into game shape after missing most of the season. On Thursday night in Los Angeles, he made 26 saves in a 2-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres.
Jonathan Quick picked up shutout Thursday over Sabres – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Jarome Iginla and rookie Adrian Kempe scored for the Kings who improved to 34-29-7 but failed to gain on the St Louis Blues for the second wild spot. The Blues defeated the San Jose Sharks Thursday, 4-1.
“We’re a team that was trying to get some more speed in our lineup, so that gives us another fast player,” LA head coach Darryl Sutter said Kempe. “He’s [20] years old. I’m not going to get too philosophical, but he’s got a lot to learn about the game, I think. Just think about the two goals we scored — the oldest player on our team scored a goal and the youngest player scored a goal. Hopefully, in between, we can flip a little bit around and somebody else will score next game.”
The game was scoreless until Iginla scored early in the third.
“I thought the first period was a really good period for us. We had good chances, good shots, and at that point you just want to not let them hang around. They started pushing back a bit in the second [period] and made it a little bit closer, Iginla said after LA pushed the Sabres around in the first period.
Kempe closed out the scoring with a late goal in the third.
“I thought it was good. It was a tough start with a mistake and a bad bounce there. Towards the end we were creating [chances], but again, you just have to do it for a full 60 [minutes], it’s not good just to do it for five or 10 minutes,” Ryan O’Reilly said of the Sabres game overall.
WATCH: All Sabres vs. Kings highlights
Robin Lehner had 34 saves for Buffalo who dropped to 28-31-12.
“I think we struggled to get our legs in this game and they played a hard, heavy game and got us back on our heels,” Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma said. “We had a couple of long shifts in the defensive zone and they were pouring it on.”
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