The Key Three: Dec. 1

Three key aspects of the Kings' 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers.

Friday, 12.02.2011 / 11:00 AM / Los Angeles Kings | News
By Rich Hammond

The three key aspects of the Kings’ 2-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night...

1. Jonathan Quick
In his postgame interview, Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi was asked how the Kings held things together despite two injuries on a fast-charging Florida Panthers team. ``That’s easy. Jonathan Quick.’’ Enough said. Quick made a season-high 41 saves, helped kill more than nine minutes of Florida power-play time and, in general, helped stabilize things when the Panthers seemed in danger of taking over the game. Quick lowered his goals-against average to 1.96 and raised his save percentage to .936.

2. Penalty killing
Whatever happened to the Kings’ penalty killing at the start of November, it seems to have been rectified. The Kings went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill against the Panthers and, overall, have killed 24 consecutive penalties. The Kings lost top penalty-killer Willie Mitchell early, and also had to scramble when Matt Greene and Drew Doughty took second-period penalties, but the Kings kept the Panthers’ top-10 power play off the scoreboard. The Panthers recorded 13 of their 42 shots on goal while on the power play.

3. Dustin Brown’s goal
The Kings were nursing a 1-0 lead in the second period, but the Panthers were buzzing and seemed poised to tie the game at any moment. After staging an unintentional parade to the penalty box, late in the first period and early in the second, the Kings got a power play 13 minutes into the second period and took advantage. A nice outlet pass from Slava Voynov found the stick of Dustin Brown, who skated down the left side -- Brown looks increasingly comfortable as a left winger -- and beat Jose Theodore with a beautiful shot. That goal loomed large after the Panthers scored a couple minutes later.