LOS ANGELES — Anze Kopitar got the go-ahead goal on a power play late in the second period and defenceman Luke Schenn also scored for the Los Angeles Kings in a 2-1 victory over the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night.
Jonathan Quick made 22 saves, helping the Kings increase their Pacific Division lead to four points over the idle Anaheim Ducks. The only puck that got past him was a power-play goal by Sean Monahan.
Joni Ortio stopped 35 shots for the Flames in his first NHL start since Oct. 30, when Montreal beat him 6-2. Calgary recalled him from the minors to back up Jonas Hiller after Karri Ramo’s season-ending knee injury on Feb. 11 at San Jose.
Kopitar, who sat out Saturday’s 2-1 overtime win at Nashville because of a lower-body injury, got his team-high 18th goal and fifth game-winner at 17:27 of the second from short range while Flames captain Mark Giordano was serving a holding penalty.
Ortio stopped the first 20 shots he faced before Schenn opened the scoring at 9:41 of the middle period with his fourth goal of the season and second since joining the Kings along with Vincent Lecavalier in a trade from Philadelphia on Jan. 6.
Schenn took a drop pass from Tanner Pearson along the right boards, then sent a wrist shot along the ice to beat Ortio through a screen with Lecavalier and Giordano standing in front of the net.
Monahan tied it at 11:56 of the period with his 18th goal, redirecting a perfect cross-ice centring feed from Jiri Hudler through Quick’s legs just 8 seconds after Kings defenceman Jake Muzzin was sent off for interference.
The Flames are 5-6-0 since defenceman Dennis Wideman began serving his 20-game suspension for knocking down linesman Don Henderson from behind on Jan. 27. The NHLPA’s second appeal of Wideman’s suspension will be heard by arbitrator James Oldham on Thursday and Friday in New York.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman upheld Wideman’s punishment last week.
NOTES: Kopitar has missed only five of 413 regular-season and playoff games since the start of the 2011-12 season. . Calgary is 3-22-2 when scoring fewer than three goals, and all of the wins were decided in overtime. . The Kings returned from a 3-3-1 road trip that included overtime wins against the Rangers and Predators. They began a nine-game stretch that includes one road game — 35 miles down the freeway in Anaheim on Sunday. . Calgary allowed 27 goals over its previous six games. . The Flames came in with the league’s second-worst conversion percentage on the power play (15.6) and the worst penalty-killing percentage (73.2). They have allowed 14 power-play goals over their last eight games. . Ortio’s last victory in the NHL was against the Kings on Jan. 19, 2015, at Los Angeles.
