Holding on late

The Kings, after Tuesday’s victory over the Ducks, improved to 10-0 in games in which they lead after two periods. That’s impressive for any team, particularly one that’s still fairly young. The Kings gave up the tying goal early in the third period, and had to scramble for much of the period against the surging Ducks, but still managed a 12-11 edge in shots, something that pleased Terry Murray, who had this to say about maintaining third-period leads…

MURRAY: “It means that you’re going to stay after it. I look back at quite a few games over the years, with young teams, and you have a tendency to pull back and play with that `Let’s protect the lead’ attitude. We’re staying after the game. You want to keep doing the same things that got you there. That’s a skill that you can learn. It’s not an easy thing to learn.

“Sometimes, whenever you’re protecting a lead in a one-goal game like that, and it’s a young group of guys, the thought process sometimes stops, and sorting it out becomes an issue, but I really liked how we stayed after the game and are doing the right things when we have an opportunity be aggressive, to make plays, to get the forecheck going, whatever it might be. Playing the game, through the 60 minutes, is nice to see.”