LOS ANGELES — Sean Walker and Mikey Anderson scored, Jonathan Quick made 21 saves and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-1 on Monday night.
Dustin Brown and Trevor Moore added empty-net goals for the Kings, who are six points behind St. Louis in the race for the final playoff spot in the West Division.
Jamie Drysdale scored for the Ducks, who have lost five in a row. Anthony Stolarz made 21 saves.
After a frustrating 4-0 loss to Arizona on Saturday, the Kings rediscovered their offense by scoring multiple goals in the first period for the first time in 12 games. Walker put them in front 1-0 5:19 into the game with a shot from the blue line through traffic.
Anderson extended the lead to 2-0 at 10:34, beating Stolarz with a backhand from the left hash marks.
The Kings hadn’t gotten goals from multiple defensemen in a game this season prior to Walker and Anderson’s contributions.
Drysdale, Anaheim’s top prospect on defense who was drafted sixth overall in 2020, got the Ducks within 2-1 at 3:03 of the second. He got his third goal on a shot from the high slot with bodies screening Quick’s line of sight.
Brown got his 17th goal at 18:57 of the third to make it 3-1, and Moore scored at 19:29 to finish it off.
ALMOST THERE
Anze Kopitar picked up his 996th career point on an assist, moving closer to joining Marcel Dionne, Luc Robitaille and Dave Taylor as the fourth player to get 1,000 points with the Kings.
SHUFFLE
Coming off losses to Minnesota and Arizona over the weekend that damaged their playoff hopes, the Kings made several lineup changes. They played with 11 forwards and seven defenseman, with Carl Grundstrom and Matt Luff scratched and Kurtis MacDermid coming in as the extra man on the blue line.
Coach Todd McLellan also changed up his defensive pairings, having 2019 first-round pick Tobias Bjornfot play with Drew Doughty.
UP NEXT
The Ducks and Kings play again in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
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