LOS ANGELES — The Ottawa Senators completed the So Cal sweep after the 4-1 defeat of the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Thursday night.
“It was a major character win,” Senators head coach Guy Boucher said. “We are missing our number one center, number one goalie and number one defensemen and then right off the bat we have another center taken out and it is back-to-back. They have their full team and it looked like we weren’t going to get much of a chance tonight, but the guys did a terrific job.”
After a scoreless first period, Kings forward Kyle Clifford scored the only goal for the team at 3:47 of the second period.After Los Angeles cycled the puck, Clifford positioned himself in front of Senators goalie Anders Nilsson, no Senator was near Clifford to defend the shot on goalie and the puck slid past Nilsson for the score.
Ottawa’s Bobby Ryan scored on the power play at 14:59 that tied the game 1-1, then Chris Tierney scored the go ahead goal that put the Senators ahead 2-1 on the Mikkel Boedker assist.
The Senators remained aggressive int he third period as Christian Wolanin scored another goal for the 3-1 lead. Ottawa also got its first consecutive wins since a three-game streak Nov. 27, as they hold both the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings to one goal a piece in each game.
Tierney put the nail in the coffin as he scored the final goal on an empty netter at 19:02 mark of the final period, off the assist from Zack Smith. Tierney has five points in his last three games.
“That’s awful,” Kings forward Clifford explained. “That’s just embarrassing to be honest. There’s not much more to say other than that.”
Jonathan Quick made 23 saves for the Kings in the loss. Nilsson made 33 saves for Ottawa in the win.
ICE COLD NOTES:
Mikkel Boedker got his 200th career assist on Tierney’s second period goal. (OTT)
Kyle Clifford tied his career-high with his seventh goal of the season. He is currently tied for fifth on the team in goals. Jake Muzzin registered his 14th assist of the season. (LAK)
