OTTAWA—Anze Kopitar and four other Kings players score to lead Los Angeles over the Ottawa Senators 5-2 at the Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday, December 14. It comes as Los Angeles hold a league best, six game winning streak.
With Jones on a hot streak in the net for the Kings, their major concern was to increase the offense. It didn’t take long for the memo to hit as Dwight King shot his eighth of the season on a stretch pass from Jeff Carter 21 seconds into the opening period. Carter made his way to the score sheet with an unassisted wrister four minutes later for his ninth of the year. The Kings went up 3-0 midway into the first with Kopitar scoring his tenth on a rebound in front of Senators goaltender Robin Lehner. With three unanswered in 12 minutes, the Kings buffer zone held up despite Ottawa outshooting them 9-8.
The Senators ran the second with an early chance to chop the lead down to two, but failed on their second power play. Their late chance came by Joe Corvo who scored his third of the season on a shot from the short side.
With Ottawa on the ropes, the Kings held their defense to a strong suit with Jones allowing less than a goal in his five starts; he brought everything left in the tank, but not before the Senators made their final push. Erik Karlsson took a stab at putting his team a goal closer to overtime with his ninth of the year four minutes into the third. Unfortunately, their tenacity faltered with the Kings relentless to finish shooting at Lehner.
Jarret Stoll scored his fourth following behind Drew Doughty who took his chance on net for Stoll to grab a second chance and regain the Kings two goal lead. Kopitar put Los Angeles back to status quo from the first with a power play goal for his second of the night and Ottawa’s downfall. Zack Smith earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty against Daniel Carcillo with 1:08 left in the game with Carcillo picking up the same call. The Senators picked up a four on three advantage, but the time was too little too late for a comeback.
Jones ended added another game to his premier lengthy streak making a total of 37 saves with a .949 save percentage. With a 3-0 record against Atlantic Division teams, the 23-year-old British Columbia native could be on his way to becoming a Vezina finalist early in the season.
