Dustin Brown’s empty-net attempt hit the goal post, but the Kings outshot the Coyotes 33-26 and held on for the victory. More from the locker room to come…

The Kings took the lead back 4:57 into the third period. Justin Williams held the puck low in the offensive zone and pushed it up to Jack Johnson in the slot. Johnson ripped a slap shot and Bryzgalov made the save, but the puck trickled behind him for a moment. Jarret Stoll went to the [...]

The Coyotes completed their three-goal comeback by tying the game at 3-3 with 1:13 remaining in the second period. Lee Stempniak carried the puck into the Kings zone and, with Jack Johnson in front of him, fired a high wrist shot from the left circle that beat Quick.

Phoenix pulled within 3-2 with a power-play goal 3:05 into the second period. Ray Whitney pushed the puck down low to Keith Yandle, who deftly made a short, centering pass. Martin Hanzal found some space in front of the net and slipped a backhand shot past the prone Quick.

The Coyotes came on strong after the Kings’ third goal, and shots ended up 14-8 in favor of the Kings in the first period. At one point, the Kings were outshooting the Coyotes 10-0. Phoenix will be on the power play for the first 41 seconds of the second period.

The Kings, who had totaled two goals in their previous three games, scored their third goal of the first period with 6:27 remaining. Alec Martinez skated to a puck near the left boards and one-timed it toward the net and beat Bryzgalov, short side, to put the Kings up 3-0. The three-goal lead lasted only [...]

Drew Doughty gave the Kings a 2-0 lead at the 7:31 mark. Anze Kopitar won an offensive-zone faceoff and pushed the puck back to Doughty. At the blue line, Doughty faked a shot, took a couple strides and ripped a slap shot from the top of the right circle that beat Ilya Bryzgalov, through traffic.

The Kings got on the scoreboard 1:22 into the first period. After a defensive-zone faceoff win, the Coyotes attempted a breakout pass, but Matt Greene got his stick on the puck in the neutral zone and pushed it ahead to start a 2-on-1. Justin Williams passed to Ryan Smyth, who passed back to Williams in [...]

The Kings will go with Alexei Ponikarovsky tonight, instead of Kevin Westgarth. Davis Drewiske and Peter Harrold are the other scratches. Phoenix defenseman Derek Morris is day to day with a lower-body injury and will not play tonight, and neither will defenseman Ed Jovanovski.

Of course, not a lot has changed for the Phoenix Coyotes since Thursday’s game at Staples Center. They’re expected to stay with Ilya Bryzgalov in goal, after his fine effort against the Kings on Thursday. Ed Jovanovski, who has missed four consecutive games with a lower-body injury, had his status described as a “game-time decision” [...]

Why are the Kings slumping on offense? Their top four goal scorers this season — Ryan Smyth, Justin Williams, Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar — have combined for two goals in the team’s last six games. Brown and Kopitar, in particular, have had the steepest drop-offs, beyond the last six games. Kopitar had 14 goals [...]

For all the negatives in the Kings’ games of late, there has been one notable positive. After Thursday’s game, the Kings moved to first in the NHL in terms of fewest shots on goal allowed per game. The Kings have allowed an average of 27.4 shots on goal this season, 0.1 fewer than second-place New [...]

To be certain, statistics can sometimes be deceiving, but often they’re also spot-on. The Kings have lost five consecutive one-goal games, and they’re 1-6-1 in their last eight one-goal games. In fact, the Kings haven’t won a one-goal game in regulation since a 2-1 victory over Calgary on Dec. 9. Overall, for the season they’re [...]

Terry Murray said this morning that he had yet to decide whether to play Alexei Ponikarovsky or Kevin Westgarth in a fourth-line role tonight against Phoenix. Otherwise, no changes are expected. The Kings and Coyotes each had optional morning skates today. More notes and quotes to come…

A couple important notes on tonight’s game. One, it’s a 5 p.m. Pacific time start. Two, hope for a quick ending on that Oregon-OregonState basketball game this afternoon. It precedes the Kings game, but if the basketball game runs past 5 p.m., the Kings’ telecast will be shown on a slight tape delay. For instance, [...]

Following the “shot mentality” theme of the day, Terry Murray talked today about his per-game goal of having at least 65 pucks put to the net in every game. That can include shots on goal, blocked shots and shots that go wide, the theory being that you can’t always control the number of pucks that [...]