It took a while on Thursday night for the LA Kings to get it going, but the team was able to rally late against the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets for a big 2-1 road victory. With the win, Los Angeles improves to 14-13-4, while Columbus fell to 9-22-4 on the season.
After a scoreless first period, Jeff Carter scored his seventh goal of the year midway through the second. He was assisted by Vaclav Prospal and Nikita Nikitin. Columbus played very well through the first 40 minutes, but it would be the third period that would bring their downfall.
The Kings scored twice in the period, both within the first ten minutes of the period. Davis Drewiske came up huge at 4:33 with his first goal of the season to tie the score at 1-1. Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown get credit for the assist. Brown then lit the lamp himself just four minutes later, scoring his sixth goal of the season with assists from Drew Doughty and Simon Gagne.
The Blue Jackets got quite a few quality shots on goal in the closing moments, but goalie Jonathan Quick was able to knock away 24 of 25 shots. Despite taking the loss, Columbus goalie Curtis Sanford successfully stopped 39 of 41 shots.
The Kings now have a day to rest before taking on the Detroit Redwings. The puck is set for drop at 7:00 ET / 4:00 PT.