The toughest .500 team in the NHL paid a visit tot he Staples Center Thursday and skated off with a 3-1 win over the Los Angles Kings. The Carolina Hurricanes improved to 11-10-6 with the win.
Derek Ryan scored twice for the Canes in his fist multi-goal in the NHL/
“Pretty remarkable. Hard to even put it into words,” Ryan said. “It’s one of those nights where you’ll remember it.”
Carolina has a habit of lulling the opposition and they certainly did that to the Kings with only 18 shots on goal all night.
“We just didn’t play nearly as good enough as we needed to, especially at home,” Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. “Obviously, we’ve given up easy first two goals off a rush and an odd-man rush again in the second. You just can’t afford those. In the third, we know we have to throw everything at them, but again, it’s a turnover in our zone and it ends up in the back of our net.”
Jeff Zatkoff stopped 15 shots in the loss.
Cam Ward made 21 saves and only missed a shot from Drew Doughty.
The Kings dropped to 13-10-2 on the season.
WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Kings highlights
Brock McGinn also scored for the Kings.
For Ryan, 29, it was special night given his journeyman status in the AHL and Erirope.
“The knock on [Derek Ryan] would be that he’s a little bit undersized and maybe doesn’t have the top-end speed that a lot of guys at this level do have,” Carolina head coach Bill Peters said of his hockey veteran. “But he’s got a great hockey mind and he’s got elite vision and he makes plays. He’s got a lot of confidence in himself, he’s led a lot of leagues that he’s played in and some high-caliber leagues like the Swedish Hockey League, prior to coming over to North America. … It’s a good story.”
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