Kings 4, Senators 3 (OT)
LOS ANGLES -- After the Kings blew a three-goal lead, Jeff Carter rescued them with an overtime goal, lifting Los Angeles to a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday at Staples Center.
Carter scored his second goal of the night 28 seconds into overtime just as a power play was ending. Ottawa's Clarke MacArthur was whistled for hooking at 18:38 of the third period.
Carter has scored in three of the Kings' first four games.
The Senators answered the Kings' three first-period goals by spreading three of their own over the next two to force overtime.
Carter said, "It wasn't pretty tonight, but we stuck with it."
The Kings received a huge lift from Dustin Brown, who carried the team in the early going and set an intimidating tone.
Brown, the Kings' rugged right wing and spiritual leader, drew two first-period penalties on the Senators, scored two goals and was a key part of another to stake the Kings to a 3-0 lead at the first intermission.
He began the scoring with a flurried dash out of the penalty box early in the first period and a spirited skate up the right wing, knocking the puck past Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson at 6:39.
Then Brown drew a roughing penalty from Zach Smith, putting the Kings on the power play that led to Carter flipping the puck over a sprawling Anderson for a 2-0 lead at 12:31.
Carter and Brown teamed up five minutes later, with Carter feeding a pass to Brown, who rocketed a shot past Anderson. The Kings led 3-0, and their dispirited effort two nights earlier against the New York Rangers was a distant memory.
The Senators, in the early stages of a grueling six-game road trip to begin the season, began their comeback at 6:06 of the second period.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau found an opening past Kings goalie Jonathan Quick to inch the Senators within 3-1.
Bobby Ryan found the net beyond Quick on a power play at 5:58 of the third to make it 3-2.
At 15:33 of the third, Milan Michalek tied the score at 3 when he fired a shot past Quick, who started the play with a sweeping save on Stephane Da Costa backhand, only for Michalek to take advantage of the rebound.
NOTES: Kings C Anze Kopitar, who had two assists, has recorded a helper in three of the first four games of the season. ... The hesitant play of Kings D Jake Muzzin caught the eye of coach Darryl Sutter. "He's struggling a lot," Sutter said. "Went through it last year. He's a young defenseman. There's a lot of pressure on him. You saw it in the playoffs last year. He was a healthy scratch. We're going through that same thing again. You're not going to win many games if you're a guy who's playing significant minutes and you're a high minus player." ... C Jason Spezza, the Senators' captain, was held out of the game with a groin ailment. Spezza hoped to play against the Kings but he was overruled by the coaching staff. "We don't want this groin injury to become a problem," coach Paul MacLean said. ... The Senators are in the early stages of a six-game road trip to open the season. They visit the San Jose Sharks on Saturday and the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday before facing the Phoenix Coyotes on Tuesday. ... The Kings begin a four-game road trip when they play the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday.
