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Johnson, Kings win fourth straight in shootout

Feb 11, 2009 - 5:19 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Kings continued to roll thanks to defenseman Jack Johnson's heroics in the shootout.

Johnson scored the lone goal of the bonus format and rookie Jonathan Quick made 22 saves Tuesday, lifting the Kings to a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders.

Alexander Frolov scored a goal and set up another in regulation for Los Angeles, which has won four consecutive contests and seven of its last eight.

"This is probably the best stretch of hockey I've been a part of since I've been in LA," Kings captain Dustin Brown said. "It goes back to the road trip before the All-Star break, and I think we've lost one in overtime and lost one in regulation. It's much more fun when we win."

"This is the best time I've ever had in coaching," Los Angeles coach Terry Murray added. "I got into coaching in 1982 as an assistant, and this is the most fun I've had. It's a group of young players, I'm more relaxed, I'm more experienced, I have a good handle on what I want to do and how to go about it."

Wayne Simmonds and Anze Kopitar also tallied for the Kings, who outshot the Islanders by a 39-25 margin before the shootout.

Doug Weight, Tim Jackman and Andy Hilbert each netted a goal and Yann Danis stopped 36 shots for New York, which has lost three games in a row.

"It was a good game, I thought we played real well," Islanders captain Bill Guerin said. "We got great goaltending from Yann and a great penalty kill in overtime. A lot of good things."

After teammates Patrick O'Sullivan and Frolov failed to score in the first two rounds of the bonus format, Johnson deked before beating Danis with a wrist shot as the Kings matched their longest winning streak of the season.

"He made a pretty good move," Danis said. "I tried to stack my pads, and somehow, it squeezed through."

Quick made a pair of nice saves on Frans Nielsen and Kyle Okposo before watching rookie Josh Bailey mishandle the puck on his third-round attempt, setting the stage for Johnson's heroics.

"He's kind of an unknown for me, an unknown for all of us," Murray said of Quick. "Whenever you see a young player play and win, the whole dressing room gets excited, the bench gets excited, then they dig in and do the extra work."

Los Angeles entered the third period with a 3-2 deficit before Frolov tied it with a power-play goal at 6:41.

Blue-liner Kyle Quincey controlled the puck at the left faceoff circle and unleashed a wrist shot that Danis stopped with his right pad, but Frolov banged in the rebound for his team-leading 22nd goal.

Brown had a golden opportunity to win the game for Los Angeles in the waning seconds of overtime, but Danis turned away his shot from the edge of the crease to force the shootout.

"I felt good. It wasn't as clean as my previous games, but I battled through it," Danis said. "There were a couple of rebounds I'd like to have back, but I was pretty pleased with a couple of good saves I made late in the game, and overall, I was happy."