Jonathan Quick made 34 saves for the 55th shutout of his NHL career and the visiting Los Angeles Kings won their seventh straight game, 2-0 against the short-handed Ottawa Senators on Thursday.
Quick is second among active goalies in career shutouts behind Marc-Andre Fleury of the Chicago Blackhawks (67).
Anze Kopitar and Andreas Athanasiou scored for the Kings, who last won seven in a row from Feb. 26 to March 11, 2020, the final seven games before the season was shut down because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Filip Gustavsson made 34 saves for the Senators, who had nine players in the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol. They were shut out for the first time in 78 games, the longest streak in the NHL.
The Kings took a 1-0 with a power-play goal after Drake Batherson went to the penalty box for hooking Mikey Anderson at 14:03 of the second period.
Los Angeles tired out the Ottawa defense by keeping the puck in the Ottawa zone for the first 1:25 of the power play. Kopitar fired a wrist shot from the right circle that nicked off Senators defenseman Michael Del Zotto and past Gustavsson at 15:28.
Kopitar, 34, leads the Kings with eight goals and 16 points.
Adrian Kempe assisted on the goal to stretch his point streak to six games (four goals, three assists).
Athanasiou scored with 3:10 left to increase the lead to 2-0.
Ottawa defenseman Nikita Zaitsev, goaltender Matt Murray and forward Alex Formenton were put in COVID-19 protocol on Thursday, the fifth straight day at least one member of the team was added to the list.
After consultation with medical officials at NHL headquarters in New York, the league made the decision to play Thursday’s game.
Ottawa defenseman Lassi Thomson was recalled from Belleville of the American Hockey League before the game. The 19th overall pick by the Senators in the 2019 NHL Draft played 22:29.
Senators defenseman Artem Zub left late in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return.
–Field Level Media
