Kings beat Senators 6-3

Ottawa scored a soft goal with 8:28 remaining in the second period Thursday to complete a rally from a two-goal deficit and tie the game. What was said on the Kings’ bench?

``I can’t repeat all of that,’’ Kings coach Terry Murray said.

A PG-13 pep talk on the bench? Perhaps, and the Kings responded with just enough plays to pull out a 6-3 victory over the Senators before 14,997 at STAPLES Center.

It’s certainly not a game that will be televised as a ``classic’’ a decade from now, but the Kings did manage their third consecutive win and pushed past Colorado into fourth place in the Western Conference thanks to some timely goals from less-likely sources.

Justin Williams scored twice in the final three minutes to clinch the game, but the other goals came from defensemen (Drew Doughty and Randy Jones), a fourth-line winger (Brad Richardson) and on a penalty shot, converted by Wayne Simmonds.

On a night when the Kings were outshot 30-24 and were often sloppy with the puck, that type of gritty, all-hands-on-deck mentality seemed fitting in the victory.

``That's the good news,’’ Williams said. ``We've won three in a row, and we've won them in three different fashions. The thing I'm happy about is, good teams and great teams find a way to wing games when they're not at their best.

``We were definitely not at our best. We were loose tonight, but we ended up coming away with two points. We came away with what we wanted to get. I know that next game, we're going to be better and hopefully start a little ball rolling here.’’

The Kings managed to get goals with their first and second lines on the ice, but the goals didn’t come from traditional scorers such as Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown (although each of them had one assist).

Jones now has four goals in his 11 games with the Kings, and Doughty scored his seventh goal of the season, exceeding last season’s total of six goals.

Doughty’s goal was the big one, as it broke a string of some poor play. The Kings had a 5-on-3 advantage for the first 1:36 of the second period, but had trouble even hitting the net. Then, after Richardson scored for a 3-1 lead, the Senators rallied to tie the game.

``The way it was going, I thought we were a little lucky to be in that situation as it was,’’ Murray said of the 3-1 lead. ``We just looked a little disorganized at times in the checking part of our game. When they did tie it up, it wasn't something that just happened out of a good game. It was something that was building. So you're kind of prepared for it.

``We were just continually talking about, `Let's get back on track here, guys. Let's keep making good decisions with the puck and playing solid defensively.'’’

The Kings got another power play, with six minutes left in the second period, and Doughty’s goal, just seconds after a faceoff win, gave the Kings a 4-3 lead, a lead they wouldn’t again lose.

``We were kind of sitting back there, when they got their (third) goal,’’ Doughty said. ``We weren't really playing our game. We weren't up to par. We weren't getting pucks in deep and we were turning them over. That's what the causes of their goals were. After that, we were just trying to stay positive and we took it to them after that.’’

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick helped make the lead stand up with 27 saves in a game that was quite different than the one the teams played last season in Ottawa, a 1-0 Kings lead.

Any thoughts of a defensive struggle dissipated early.

The Kings took the lead on their first shot, 42 seconds into the game. Alexander Frolov dropped a brilliant pass back to Jones, whose slap shot beat Senators goalie Brian Elliott (18 save). Williams also got an assist.

Ottawa tied the game on the power play, with 8:47 left in the first period. Mike Fisher, in the slot, had a nice deflection of a shot from the right point by Ryan Shannon.
The Kings took a 2-1 lead when Simmonds scored on a penaly shot -- a sharp wrist shot -- after getting pulled down by Filip Kuba on a breakaway. The goal came with 2:36 left in the first period.

After failing to score on a two-man advantage for the first 1:36 of the second period, the Kings took a two-goal lead 3:51 into the period. Brown went hard to the net, and Elliott made the save, but Richardson came in down the right side and knocked in the rebound.

Ottawa pulled within one at the 7:51 mark. Frolov lost control of the puck in the defensive zone after a hit, and Chris Kelly took a shot from the right side. Quick made the stop, but Jonathan Cheechoo came in from the left and knocked in the rebound.

The Senators tied the game on a rough sequence for the Kings. As Kopitar skated to the bench, bent over at the waist, after a rough collision with the boards, the Senators tied the game. Shannon carried the puck down low and passed it out to Fisher. With Quick far out of his net, Fisher scored his second goal of the game with 8:28 left in the period.

The Kings didn't waste any time in taking back the lead, as they scored less than three minutes later. Jarret Stoll won the draw, Kopitar passed to Doughty and, from the top of the left circle, Doughty ripped a slap shot past Elliott just six seconds into the power play, with 5:49 left in the second period.

Williams' goal late in the third period gave the Kings some breathing room. After the Senators fumbled the puck behind their net -- with some pressure from  Frolov -- Williams picked up the puck and beat Elliott with a wrist shot from close range with 2:33 remaining. Williams scored again with 10 seconds remaining.

Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi missed his eighth consecutive game with a lower-body injury, and forward Brandon Segal missed the game with what Segal has described as a sprained knee.

LAKings.com's GAME NOTES
The Kings have now won four of their last five games...The Kings are seven games above .500 for the first time since 2005-06...This is the best Kings 29-game start since 1999-00 (15-7-6-1 = 37 points) ...This is tied for the seventh-best 29-game start in franchise history (also 17-10-2 in 1975-76)...Drew Doughty (7-14=21) this season has (6-21=27) all of last season... Four of Doughty’s seven goals have come on the power play... Doughty now has three game-winning goals, tied with Michal Handzus for the team lead... Wayne Simmonds extended his career-high point streak to five games (4-2=6)... The Kings are now 14-41 all-time on penalty shots. For a complete history of Kings penalty shots click here... Justin Williams had his second three-point game of the season... Michal Handzus is 39-53 on faceoffs in the last three games (73.6 percent)... The Kings are 11-0-0 when leading after two periods... The Kings are 13-3-2 when scoring first.