LOS ANGELES 5
VANCOUVER 1
LOS ANGELES 鈥� No matter how many goals the Los Angeles Kings end up with on a given night 鈥� and they hadn鈥檛 been scoring a lot lately 鈥� defence remains the top priority.
Jeff Carter scored twice in the third period to get reach the 300-goal mark after Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar scored less than 2 minutes apart in the second period, and the Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 Monday night.
鈥淲e always play good defensive hockey. I mean, it鈥檚 not our team motto, but it鈥檚 something we鈥檙e known for,鈥� Doughty said. 鈥淲e take a lot of pride in playing good defence, and we always have good goaltending. That鈥檚 how you win hockey games.鈥�
Carter and Vincent Lecavalier scored 39 seconds apart midway through the third, then Carter added an empty-netter to reach his milestone. The Kings scored more than two goals for only the second time in their last 11 games.
Jonathan Quick made 21 saves to help Los Angeles climb within a point of Pacific Division-leading Anaheim, which lost 2-1 to Washington in a shootout. The Kings led the Ducks by 16 points on Jan. 20, but fell out of first place with a 3-2 loss to them on Saturday at Staples Center.
鈥淚t was a pretty heartbreaking loss against the Ducks,鈥� Doughty said. 鈥淲e wanted that win and they wanted to be at the top of our division. So we knew we needed to catch up to them, and we wanted to start that off by winning tonight.鈥�
Defenceman Dan Hamhuis scored for Vancouver and Ryan Miller stopped 24 shots. The Canucks were 0 for 5 on the power play.
Canucks captain Henrik Sedin, the franchise鈥檚 career leader in games played, was back in Vancouver getting re-evaluated after leaving Saturday night鈥檚 4-2 win at San Jose because of an upper-body injury. So twin brother Daniel had to go it alone, and the Kings were able to bottle him up.
Daniel Sedin, one of two Canucks to play in all 65 games, failed to get a shot on net for the first time this season. That leaves Montreal left wing Max Pacioretty as the only player in the league to get at least one in each of his team鈥檚 games.
鈥淥bviously, (the Sedins are) pretty dangerous when they鈥檙e together and they鈥檙e a big part of that team, so I guess that made it a little easier on us tonight,鈥� Carter said.
Doughty tied it 1-all at 10:07 of the second with his 13th goal, on a wrist shot from the left circle that trickled through Miller鈥檚 pads and across the goal line.
鈥淚 thought it was going to be in front of me the way it hit me, and it just went straight down towards the top of my pad,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淎s I was putting my arm in, I must have knocked it. It鈥檚 frustrating, I thought I set it up pretty well, where he couldn鈥檛 get it over me.鈥�
Kopitar gave the Kings the lead at 12:06 of the period, beating Miller high to the glove side with a wrist shot from the right circle while teammate Tanner Pearson was screening him in front of the crease.
Carter added an insurance goal with 8:21 remaining, beating Miller to the glove side with a short wrist shot from the right circle. Lecavalier capped the scoring moments later with a 40-foot slap shot that again trickled through Miller鈥檚 pads.
鈥淚t鈥檚 frustrating,鈥� Miller said. 鈥淭wo of the shots hit me hard and I collapsed and lost control and knocked them both in. Pucks kind of went through me instead of around me. I can do more and need to be better.鈥�
The teams were skating 4-on-4 after coincidental minor penalties to Jake Muzzin and Vancouver鈥檚 Burrows when the Canucks opened the scoring at 2:39 of the second.
It was the second goal in two games for Hamhuis after he had failed to get one in his first 40 games. Last season, the 12-year veteran didn鈥檛 score a goal in his first 58 games before ending the drought in his final game of the campaign.
NOTES: Defenceman Christopher Tanev, who leads Vancouver with 156 blocked shots, also had an upper-body injury in that game and was scratched as well. ... The Kings honoured former centre Jimmy Carson before the game during their third and final 鈥淟egends Night鈥� of the season. Carson scored 55 goals in 1987-88, an NHL record for American-born players that still stands. So does his franchise-record five hat tricks that season. ... Kings LW Milan Lucic, born in Vancouver, has two goals and five assists in 12 regular-season games against the Canucks. He had two goals and an assist against them for Boston in the 2011 Stanley Cup finals, which the Bruins won in seven games.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
CAPITALS 2, DUCKS 2
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) 鈥� T.J. Oshie and Nicklas Backstrom scored in the shootout, and the Washington Capitals stopped the Anaheim Ducks鈥� franchise-best winning streak at 11 games with 2-1 victory Monday night in a meeting of regular-season heavyweights.
Andre Burakovsky scored the tying goal early in the third period for the NHL-leading Capitals, who also ended Anaheim鈥檚 eight-game home winning streak with their sixth consecutive victory over the Ducks.
Braden Holtby made 27 saves and stopped two more shots in the shootout. Oshie atoned for an overtime penalty with the U.S. Olympic shootout star鈥檚 fourth goal in five shootout attempts this season, but after Corey Perry scored to keep the Ducks alive, Backstrom ended it.
Ryan Getzlaf scored on Anaheim鈥檚 first shot, and John Gibson stopped 30 shots.
FLYERS 4, LIGHTNING 2
Shayne Gostisbehere scored twice, leading Philadelphia past Tampa Bay to snap the Lightning鈥檚 franchise-best nine-game winning streak.
Gostisbehere, Brayden Schenn and Wayne Simmonds each scored third period goals for the Flyers.
The Flyers have 73 points and moved within two of idle Detroit for the final wild-card playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. The
Flyers went 5-1 on their homestand and earned 10 of 12 possible points to key their surge in the standings.
There are 17 games left for the Flyers and two of them are against Detroit.
Ondrej Palat and Vladislav Namestnikov scored for Tampa Bay in its first loss since Feb. 16 against San Jose. The Lightning had won six straight on the road.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 36 shots for the Lightning.
BRUINS 5, PANTHERS 4, OT
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) 鈥� Lee Stempniak scored his first goal as a Bruin in overtime and Boston beat Florida 5-4 while Panthers forward
Jaromir Jagr moved into third on the NHL career points list.
Jagr assisted on Aleksander Barkov鈥檚 goal, passing Gordie Howe with 1,851 points.
Bruins coach Claude Julien moved past Art Ross to become Boston鈥檚 career coaching wins leader with 388 regular-season victories.
Stempniak, acquired from New Jersey at the trade deadline, also had two assists and Patrice Bergeron scored twice for the Bruins.
Brett Connolly and David Pastrnak also had goals, Brad Marchand had two assists and Tuukka Rask made 47 saves.
Jiri Hudler scored twice for the Panthers. Jussi Jokinen also scored and Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists. Roberto Luongo allowed four goals on 16 shots before being replaced by Al Montoya to start the second period. Montoya stopped 15 shots.
SHARKS 2, FLAMES 1, OT
CALGARY (AP) 鈥� Joe Pavelski scored 19 seconds into overtime, Martin Jones made 47 saves and San Jose beat Calgary.
Brent Burns curled toward the net and centred a pass that Pavelski one-timed past Joni Ortio.
Burns had the other goal for San Jose, which improved its league-best road record to 24-9-3.
Joe Colborne tied the game for Calgary with 1:22 left in the third period. On their sixth power play and with Ortio on the bench for an extra attacker, Mark Giordano gloved down a clearing attempt by Nick Spaling and from the blue line and wristed a shot that Colborne deflected past Jones.
AVALANCHE 3, COYOTES 1
DENVER (AP) 鈥� Semyon Varlamov had 37 saves in his return to the crease, Matt Duchene and Mikhail Grigorenko had a goal and an assist each and Colorado beat Arizona.
Shawn Matthias also scored for the Avalanche, who are tied with Minnesota for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Both teams have 72 points, but the Wild have played one fewer game.
Boyd Gordon scored and Louis Domingue had 34 saves for Arizona.
Varlamov served as the backup for two games after he struggled in losses to Detroit and Minnesota last week. He was pulled from a 6-3 loss to the Wild after allowing three goals on 12 first-period shots.
SABRES 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3, SO
TORONTO (AP) 鈥� Sam Reinhart scored in the shootout and Buffalo beat Toronto.
Jack Eichel and Evander Kane scored less than 4 minutes apart in the third period to bring the Sabres back from a 3-1 deficit. It was the 22nd loss in the past 27 games for the league-worst Leafs and fifth straight one-goal defeat.
For Buffalo, the victory snapped a string of six straight shootout losses.
Rookie Zach Hyman scored his first career NHL goal for Toronto, and Leo Komarov and Brad Boyes also scored.
Mark Pysyk had the other Buffalo goal, and Chad Johnson stopped 30 of 33 shots.
Garret Sparks made 24 saves for the Leafs, who remain last in the NHL with 53 points.
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