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Kings cool off Sharks

Dec 28, 2014 - 6:21 AM Los Angeles, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Anze Kopitar finished with a goal and an assist to lift the Los Angeles Kings to a 3-1 victory over the in-state rival San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

Tyler Toffoli and Jake Muzzin also scored and Jonathan Quick made 21 saves for the Kings, who have won three of their last four games.

"We need special teams in order to play like we did tonight, we need puck possession and puck management," Kopitar said. "If we manage the puck up the ice it usually results in better possession in our offensive zone and we can create chances off that. We did a pretty good job of that tonight."

Joe Pavelski netted San Jose's lone goal and Antti Niemi stopped 26 shots in defeat. The Sharks entered the game 9-1-1 over their last 11 contests.

"Some of the areas where we could have been better we weren't good enough, like face-offs, those types of things," Pavelski said. "We had some looks there at the end to get ourselves back into it but we didn't capitalize on them. It's a special teams night; they get two and we get none. That's probably the difference."

The Kings went ahead on the power play. Marian Gaborik drove in on net and banked the puck off Niemi's pad to Kopitar, who lifted a shot over Niemi from the right side of the cage for a 2-1 game 10:13 into the middle stanza.

Muzzin wound up at the left circle and rifled a shot past Niemi short side on the man advantage 3:18 into the third period.

Quick stopped nine shots in the third to preserve the win.

The Sharks didn't wait long to get on the board. Joe Thornton stripped Justin Williams of the puck and slipped a pass to Pavelski, who skated in from the left circle and fired a shot that squeaked through the pads of Quick and over the goal line 2:39 into the game.

Jamie McBain sent a pass from the right circle down to Toffoli, who beat Niemi from the left side of the net for a tie game with 5:56 left in the first.

Game Notes

Darryl Sutter won his 116th game as the Kings' head coach, surpassing Tom Webster for sole possession of fifth overall on the franchise list ... Los Angeles has scored at least one power-play goal in five straight games and has scored two-or-more PPGs in four consecutive games for the first time since Mar. 4-11, 1993 ... The Kings are 9-1-1 in their last 11 home games against the Sharks ... Kopitar extended his assist streak to five games ... San Jose forward John Scott started serving his four-game suspension.