Terry Murray’s postgame thoughts…

(on the Kings’ 60-minute game…)
MURRAY: “A real good third period, I thought. When you have a one-goal lead, you really have to dig in and do the right things, managing the puck the right way. I thought everybody bought in to what needed to be done to finish the game off the right way. As a result of it, you end up getting a power play. Kopitar scores on a great shot, and then just simple plays, faceoffs. Moller comes down and kind of salts it away with a goal.”

(on the first period…)
MURRAY: “The first period was pretty good. Right up until we killed that five-minute major off… That’s supposed to be a scenario where you’re going to get really highly energized. You’re going to come in and take over and do some great things for the next four or five shifts. Normally that’s the way it works, but it seemed like it came back at us the other way. They were doing their thing, and now we’re back on our heels a little bit, and trying to get possession of the puck and get going the other way, which we only got to the red line. We kept turning the puck and it was coming back at us again. But we regrouped. We recognized what we needed to do as we got into the third period, most importantly, to be able to shut it down.”

(on where the Kings stand now…)
MURRAY: “We’ve got 78 points. We’re now one point back of Phoenix with two games in hand. We’re in a good position right now. We have 15 games in March and six in April in front of us, so it’s going to be a sprint to the finish and it’s going to be a lot of fun. Every game has got great meaning, and I’m looking forward to it. The players, I know, are looking forward to it. They get a good break, refresh, and come back at it.”

(on the Kings’ improvement in faceoffs…)
MURRAY: “It was a lot better, not only the center icemen doing a better job in their wins, but the people in the faceoff circle were jumping in, winning those 50-50 pucks. We came up with more than our share of them here. That’s a huge part of the game. When you have a five-minute major, especially, you need to come up with those pucks and get some clears. Same on your special teams. It could be the difference and, tonight, when you put it under the microscope, that was a big part of the reason why.”