LOS ANGELES_Jake Muzzin drifted with his stick cocked high in the air, which allowed him to call for the puck while gearing to crush it.
Marian Gaborik waited a few beats before dropping a pass to Muzzin, whose slap shot whisked past St. Louis Blues goaltender Jake Allen and into the net. The Blues immediately replaced Allen, who had already allowed two goals in the first, with Carter Hutton and it took Tanner Pearson just 51 seconds to score on him.
That's how it went for the Kings (21-17-4) in their 5-1 win over the Blues (21-16-5) at Staples Center on Thursday night. They picked on the Blues' unstable goaltending tandem while Peter Budaj turned in a steady performance of his own. Muzzin scored twice, so did Pearson and Trevor Lewis found the back of the net for the first time since Dec. 10.
It was the third straight game in which the Kings scored four or more goals. It was the first time since Nov. 8 that they netted five.
"The last two games we let in more than we scored, so that was the thing to clean up," Pearson said. "Obviously we cleaned it up."
The win came exactly three months after the Kings' season opener, which is when starting goaltender Jonathan Quick injured his groin in the first period of a one-goal loss to the San Jose Sharks. Quick has not played since, leaving a mix of Budaj and Jeff Zatkoff between the pipes.
Budaj started the season in the American Hockey League but quickly emerged as the Kings' go-to Band Aid in net. The 34-year-old was 18-11 in 33 starts and allowing 2.13 goals a game heading into Thursday. But he was also three days removed from his worst outing of the season, which included five goals on 22 shots before Zatkoff replaced him midway through the third period of a 6-4 loss to the Dallas Stars.
"In order for us to stay in the race our goaltending's got to be average," Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said Thursday morning, handing a tepid challenge to the pair.
Budaj was given the first crack at those expectations. He met them, with a lot of help from his defense and a little help from the posts, while the Blues' goaltenders repeatedly struggled.
The Kings scored twice in the first _ after being buried 6-0 in the three previous first periods _ and Budaj knocked away six unthreatening shots on goal. The first Kings score was Muzzin's second power-play goal in three games, and the second when Trevor Lewis slotted a wrist shot into the bottom-right corner of the net.
Then the floodgates opened at the start of the second when Muzzin beat Allen, Allen was pulled for the second straight game and Pearson slapped a shot past Hutton soon after.
The Blues got on the board when Alexander Steen's pass nicked Paul Stastny's skate and snuck past Budaj's left pad. But the Kings eventually answered with Pearson's 17th goal of the season. The Blues, known for limiting their opponent's chances, had just eight shots on goal through two periods. They had two in the second alone.
One of those was by Stastny's right foot.
They registered a handful of fruitless chances after the period break and Budaj ended up saving 14 shots in the final 20 minutes. After barging the Blues' net through the first two periods, the Kings sat back and let Budaj pair complement their offensive outburst with above-average play.
"(Budaj) definitely wanted to bounce back and he played his game," Pearson said. "And we definitely did our part."
