LOS ANGELES—The Kings game against the Canadiens was not an eventful one, but the team took the win in stride. Goals from Jake Muzzin and Jeff Carter helped the Kings beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 at the Staples Center Monday night. The Kings maintain a five-game winning streak and hold a 10-point lead on third place in the Pacific Division.
After taking down the Hurricanes in a show of force, their match against Montreal would be one of physical hits and a chance of fighting. The Kings didn’t waste time in the first period as they decided to break ahead with Jake Muzzin shooting the puck that beat out Canadiens netminder Petr Budaj, for his fifth of the season. Budaj was put in place of Carey Price after being injured in a game against Toronto on Saturday. The period slowed down as the Kings were being denied furthering goals, as the Habs tallied up on the blocked shots in their end.
Montreal was having more difficult moments as their pass play looked off, choosing instead to attack the net with Jonathan Quick individually. The plan failed for minutes on end, where the Habs lost their cool. In a scuffle turned punch fest, LA’s Kyle Clifford and Jarred Tinordi duked it out in the Montreal end, where Tinordi delivered hits to the head while Clifford still had his helmet on. The same could be said for the Montreal defenseman, as Clifford returned the hits.
After going four on four, the Canadiens gave the Kings their best opportunity of the night to go up two on four shots that were point blank, but the Slovakian native held his ground. This gave Montreal enough time to regroup. The effort paid off with the Habs scoring by last year’s Norris trophy winner PK Subban, as the third year Canadiens sent a wrist shot from center to even the game for his 10th goal. With Los Angeles spending a great amount of time on offense, they surprisingly shot only five times on the net with Montreal doing the same.
The second period saw much more offense from the Kings as they took control of the opening minutes and got ahead. During their first power play, Jeff Carter rifled a shot that went through the legs of Budaj for his 22nd goal on the year, breaking the tie, and going up a goal once more. The Kings defense came back in play as the Canadiens continued to see trouble on the two man plays; this gave the puck away in the neutral zone failing to complete the pass. LA held their opponents to five shots on the goal indicating a break down in offense and what looked to be another easy victory.
The Kings came out for the third with the urge to repeat a marginal victory since shutting out the Habs at Centre Bell 6-0 earlier this season. Quick finished the night with his 19th victory stopping 17 shots with a .944 save percentage. Budaj recorded his fifth loss of the season with 20 saves dropping his percentage a few points to .909. While the Habs go south to face the resurging Ducks, Los Angeles preps for a three-game sweep through Canada with their first stop against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday.
