LOS ANGELES – Although pitching a shutout is old hat for Jonathan Quick, the Kings goalie had to feel ecstatic about shutting out one of the Eastern conference’s best offensive teams in the Boston Bruins.
Quick made 31 saves in blanking the Bruins on Tuesday night at a sold out arena of 18,230 at Staples Center. Quick, who earlier this year broke the franchise’s all time record for most shutouts with 33, extended his shutout record to 35 as the Kings beat the Bruins 2-0.
"It's two points," said Quick after the game. "Whether it's six to five you win, one to nothing, two to nothing, it's just about getting the win, especially against a team as good as Boston. We'll take two points and carry that momentum to Phoenix."
Quick made some highlight reel saves, including a spectactular save on Torey Krug in the waning minutes of the third period.
"Hell of a save," said Krug about Quick.
Quick and the Kings got their second shutout in three games and other than the team’s 4-1 defeat to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night, the Kings have played stellar defense for most of the season, looking again like the NHL’s defensive team of the year they were last season.
Tanner Pearson scored his 10th goal of the season with a few minutes left in the first period when center, Anze Kopitar, found him wide open on the right side of the net.
The Bruins were without stars David Krejci and Zdeno Chara who are both out with injuries. Boston’s star goalie, Tuukka Rask, also got the night off after making 25 saves the day before in a 3-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
"I thought we had pretty good legs," said Bruins center, Gregory Campbell about the energy level on a back-to-back. "Sometimes when you get in penalty trouble you get the momentum taken away from you, I think that's what happened the first period. We had a good start, a strong start, and then we had to kill a couple penalties and lost our energy."
The Kings had a two-man advantage in the first period for about 90 seconds after back-to-back penalties by Kevan Miller and Patrice Bergeron. The Kings were unable to capitalize on the 5 on 3 however as they were turned away by Bruins goalie, Niklas Svedberg.
"It's hard to criticiz the effort of this hockey club right now because we did everything well," said Bruins coach Claude Julien. "We killed a 5 on 3. It is kind of normal that they would gain some momentm from taking that many shots. We killed a 5 on 3 and then they took it to us there for quite a while and we got caught cheating on that goal."
Svedberg made 33 saves on the night in losing effort. "Svedy was steady," said Krug after the game. "He kept us in the game and that's why he has that nickname."
"That's what you try to do. That's what we always try to do, least goals as possible. Defensively we have to keep doing that, we always want to score goals, we can't let go of that. The defensive part is pretty good right now," added Svedberg on his team's performance.
Tyler Toffoli added an empty net goal at the end of the game to give him his 10th goal of the season. Anze Kopitar finished the game with two assists on the night.
With the victory, the Kings are now tied with the Blackhawks for sixth place in the Western Conference with 31 points through 25 games on the young season.
Game Notes: Before the game, the Kings were fined $100K by the NHL for allowing suspended star, Slava Voynov, to skate with the team in an optional practice. Defenseman, Alec Martinez, returned to the ice after missing a couple weeks with a finger injury. The Kings lead the league in wins (11) and points (23) at home this season.
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