The Kings can thank Jonathan Quick for another victory.
Quick made 40 saves, saving the Kings from a tough offensive outing in which they had just 16 shots in a 2-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday.
The Kings also killed five penalties, including two in the third period. Tyler Toffoli and Tanner Pearson scored for the Kings. Toffoli, Pearson and Jeff Carter -- who make up that 70s line -- are responsible for 11 of the Kings' 14 goals this season.
And Quick is mainly responsible for the last two victories, having made 83 combined saves. The Kings have won four consecutive game, all at Staples Center.
"It's huge," Jarret Stoll said of Quick's stingy goaltending. "I don't think we've had our game the last little while. We're winning, but we're winning because of penalty killing and goaltending. We know that. We've got to be better in a lot of areas. Quickie was Quickie."
The Kings (4-1-1) aren't playing their best, but they're playing well enough to win, and that's a good sign for the defending Stanley Cup champions.
Asked about the win streak, Kings coach Darryl Sutter deadpanned: "If we would've lost, it would've been a calamity."
It's good to be joking and winning. Sutter still had his game face on after the victory and his news conference lasted little more than 60 seconds. The penalty kill unit logged much more time than Sutter.
Quick not allowing a power-play goal in the final period was monumental in the victory. The Wild had 11 shots on one of those power plays, and Quick withstood them all. The Kings had a similar outing on Thursday in which Quick made 43 saves, and the Kings won in a shootout over St. Louis.
It's not the prescribed way to win, putting so much pressure on Quick and not enough on the opposing goalie, but the Kings are finding ways to win.
"Same as last game," Quick said. "They have a good power play, and we try to pay attention to details and grind it out," Quick said. "Obviously, they created a few chances. We were able to clear out some rebounds, block some shots and just kind of got through it."
Quick didn't just get through it. He owned it. He had kick saves and glove saves and every which way kind of saves.
"Obviously, we don't want that to happen," Pearson said. "Quickie had another outstanding game for us in the net. We just need to get more shots to the net to create more chances."
Toffoli scored on a power play in the first period, and, early in the third period, Pearson was wide open in the slot and took a nice feed from Toffoli for a two-goal Kings lead.
"It was right down Broadway and (there was) a nice little open net," Pearson said.
The only opening the Wild saw against Quick was at 6:47 in the third period. Matt Cooke scored on a backhander and beat Quick top shelf.
"We were shooting a lot, tipping, going for rebounds, but Quick was good," Minnesota forward Thomas Vanek said. "He was on top of his game, which we all know he's a world-class goalie. He showed that (Sunday)."
And last Thursday.
The Kings showed some grit when Anze Kopitar was checked into the boards by Christian Folin, right in front of the Kings bench, in the second period. There was no penalty on the play, but the Kings took offense. That was evidenced by Mike Richards, who was assessed three penalties and a 10-minute game misconduct for instigating a fight with Folin.
Kopitar sat on the bench after the hit, then went into the locker room but came back and played the rest of the game.
"I didn't see the hit clearly so it was tough to see exactly what happened but we've got a group where everybody sticks up for each other," Quick said. "That's all that was."
That says plenty for the Kings.
Jake Muzzin and Marian Gaborik are still out with injuries and with their next game not until Thursday, the Kings have some time to heal injuries. And figure out how to get more shots on goal and not lean on Quick so much.
"Hopefully, we'll get some banged up guys playing healthy and we'll still have some banged up guys who aren't playing healthy," Sutter said.
And for all the things that aren't going right, there are so many things that are going right. Quick stopped nearly everything but a Minnesota snowstorm and led the Kings to another victory to keep the win streak alive.
"It's great, but at the same time we have a tough game coming up in a few days (against Buffalo)," Quick said. "All the focus is on that."
And on Quick.
