Kings at Ottawa: The Three Muzzkateers

It seems to be somewhat of a minor miracle this season when the Kings manage to win one on the road.

It was a fairly non-eventful first period with Ottawa outshooting the Kings by a wide margin, but having nothing to show for it. The Kings struck first, 2 minutes into the 2nd period when Matt Greene shot one from the right circle. It’s eerily reminiscent of his last goal against the Panthers, another goal early in the second to start the 1st of 5 goals the Kings would eventually score. He didn’t make a comically bewildered face this time, but still this pretty spooky cool.

He’s scored 2 goals already this season (and his career high is 4 in 2012), so is Matt Greene on the precipice of his best goal scoring season yet? One can only hope.

Justin Williams adds to the Kings lead in the middle of the period, skating around Karlsson and beating Anderson on a backhand. Bobby Ryan would score a highlight reel worthy goal just 5 minutes later to put the Senators on the board and within one.

The third period saw the Senators be the team to strike swiftly at the start of the period, scoring a short hander, the first the Kings have given up this year. No matter though because good old Kopitar ended his scoring slump in a big way, getting a PPG and giving the Kings the lead again when the Senators failed to cover him (why would you let him go in front of the net unsupervised?).

Less than 2 minutes later, Tyler Toffoli dishes a nice backhand pass to our boy Trevor Lewis who patiently waits with the puck and beats Anderson. It’s his 4th of the season, and I’m feverishly cheering as he makes it one step closer to reaching the double digits in goals.

Late in the 3rd the Senators pull their goalie for an extra attacker, and it pays off when Jared Cowen beats Quick, bring them within one yet again. They try the same trick immediately after, but by this time, the Kings have learned. With less than a minute left in play, Tanner Pearson puts the last nail in the coffin and scores an empty netter.

The silent hero of this game was Jake Muzzin with a whopping 3 assists, though he oddly came out with a -2 as well. But really, 5 goals, a road win, and putting a damper on Dave Cameron’s debut as head coach? That’s a pretty good Thursday, I’ll take some more of these.