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MONTREAL -- After a rough outing in which he allowed five goals on 21 shots Monday at Ottawa, Los Angeles Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick more than made up for it Thursday against the Montreal Canadiens. Quick stopped all 45 shots he faced, and the Kings made the most of their chances to skate away with a 3-0 win over Montreal at the Bell Centre.
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"How many times have we talked about that over the last four or five years?" Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "He very rarely gives up a bad goal, and he very rarely has back-to-back games where one of them's not a dominant game."
Goalie Mike Condon made 17 saves for Montreal, which was shut out for the first time this season. The Canadiens (20-10-3) lost for the seventh time in eight games, and they scored two goals or fewer in each of those defeats.
"I'm not sure why pucks aren't going in," said left winger Max Pacioretty, the Montreal captain. "We've got to figure it out. I don't know if it's taking away (the goalie's) eyes or getting second and third chances. We don't have the answer right now. We've got to find it. We've got to find the answer quick."
Defenseman Drew Doughty, center Anze Kopitar and right winger Marian Gaborik scored for Los Angeles (20-9-2).
The Kings made the most of their limited opportunities to open the scoring at 14:47 of the second period. With a penalty to Montreal defenseman P.K. Subban expiring, right winger Tyler Toffoli skated the puck up from the slot to the blue line to dish off to Doughty on the right side. Doughty wasted little time in getting his shot off, beating a screened Condon as Subban stepped out of the box.
Kopitar doubled the Kings' lead just over a minute and a half later. Gaborik, behind the net, found Doughty along the right wall just outside the circle. Doughty paused before sending a perfect feed to a streaking Kopitar on the back door at the bottom of the left circle.
"First one, just a good power-play shot and good screen by (left winger Mike Mersch) in front," Doughty said. "On the second one, I just saw a big seam and saw Kopi going back door, and if you give Kopi those passes, they usually go in."
The Canadiens weren't without their chances.
In the first period, after Pacioretty broke in short-handed only to be denied, center Lars Eller followed suit on the next shift, only to hit the post.
In the second period, Quick gloved defenseman Andrei Markov's shot stick side on the power play. A little later, defenseman Jeff Petry fed right winger Daniel Carr for a perfect deflection, but Carr's tip went wide.
Trailing by a pair in the third, Montreal picked up the pace even more, but Quick stood tall.
Pacioretty took a shot from the low slot while battling with a Kings defender. The puck trickled past the Los Angeles netminder and got the crowd excited before Quick scooped it out of harm's way.
Less than two minutes later, Quick stopped center Alex Galchenyuk in close with a perfectly timed poke check.
"Getting the first goal was huge, in this kind of game," Eller said. "It's an L.A. team that doesn't give up a lot of chances. I think we had the chances to score two, three, today. We didn't capitalize.
"Quick played a big game and, you know, one goes post out instead of post in. Little things aren't going our way."
Gaborik closed out the scoring with an empty-net tally in the final minute.
NOTES: Montreal kept its lineup intact, leaving LW Charles Hudon, D Jarred Tinordi and D Greg Pateryn as the healthy scratches. ... The Kings scratched D Derek Forbort, and LW Kyle Clifford and C Trevor Lewis remained sidelined with upper-body injuries. ... Canadiens C Tomas Plekanec appeared in his 794th career NHL game, tying him with Jean-Claude Tremblay for 19th on the team's games played list. ... Los Angeles coach Darryl Sutter stood behind the bench for the 1,152nd time, surpassing Marc Crawford for 15th overall in NHL history. ... The game marked the first for former Bruins LW Milan Lucic against Montreal since he was traded to the Kings during the offseason.
