LOS ANGELES – Anze Kopitar and Tanner Pearson scored less than 3 minutes apart early in the first period and Dwight King scored on a breakaway in the third, leading the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night.
The victory kept the Kings tied for the Pacific Division lead with the Anaheim Ducks, who come to Staples Center for a Saturday matinee against their Southern California rivals after tying a franchise record with their 10th straight victory Thursday night at Arizona.
Jonathan Quick finished with 13 saves in the opener of a five-game homestand. He handed the Canadiens their only shutout loss of the season on Dec. 17, making a season-high 45 saves in a 3-0 victory.
P.K. Subban and Lars Eller scored and Andrei Markov had two assists for the Canadiens, who are 11-25-3 following a 19-4-3 start that included a season-opening nine-game winning streak.
Ben Scrivens stopped 28 shots in his 10th start for Montreal. The five-year veteran spent the first three months of the 2013-14 campaign with the Kings, winning five of his first seven decisions with three shutouts before finishing that season with Edmonton.
Montreal captain Max Pacioretty was temporarily shaken up on his first shift when he took a run at defenceman Jake Muzzin in the right corner of the Kings’ end and missed. Play continued while Pacioretty struggled to get back to the bench, and Kopitar tipped in Alec Martinez’s screened slap shot from just inside the blue line for his 19th goal just 56 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Pearson made it 2-0 at 3:33 of the first, beating Scrivens to the stick side with a snap shot from the top of the right circle for his 12th after Jeff Carter won a faceoff from Tomas Plekanec. The Kings are 11-0-0 when Pearson scores a goal.
The Canadiens, who went almost 10 minutes before getting their first shot on net, got on the board at 18:32 of the first when Subban beat Quick to the stick side with a 45-foot slap shot after a turnover in the Kings’ zone
But Subban coughed up the puck at the red line with the Habs pressing for the tying goal, and King went in alone on Scrivens before beating him between the pads with 14:44 remaining for a 3-1 lead. The goal helped the Kings end a string of eight consecutive games in which they scored no more than two.
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