LOS ANGELES (AP) Kings coach John Stevens told Dustin Brown last summer he could still be a 20-goal scorer in the NHL after failing to hit that threshold for five consecutive seasons.In retrospect
Adidas Laurent Brossoit Jersey , Stevens might have undersold what Brown is still capable of achieving.Brown scored his fourth goal of the game 23 seconds into overtime and the Kings moved into third place in the Pacific Division with a 5-4 win over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.Brown scored on a one-timer from the left circle to put the Kings one point ahead of Anaheim in the division, with Anze Kopitar setting up his 28th goal of the season. Brown set a career high with his 61st point.”I thought his game was trending in the right direction last year,” Stevens said. ”I said if you’re not at least a 20-goal scorer again, then I don’t know what I’m doing. And he kind of laughed, but you could see he believed it, too. And he is.”Brown is the 14th player in Kings history to score four goals in a game and the second to do so this season. Kopitar did it on March 22 against Colorado.Tobias Rieder also scored, and Daniel Brickley had an assist for his first point in his NHL debut. Jonathan Quick made 23 saves for the Kings’ fourth win in five games.Drew Doughty had an assist to become the fourth Kings defenseman with 50 in a season. Doughty also set a career high with his 60th point.Matt Dumba scored for the second straight game, and Nate Prosser had a short-handed goal for the Wild, who will play Winnipeg in the first round of the playoffs.Ryan Murphy and Eric Staal each had a goal, and Alex Stalock made 23 saves. Mikko Koivu had three assists and Mikael Granlund had two assists.Brown got his first hat trick since Feb. 25, 2012, by scoring with 49.3 seconds left in the second.Prosser tied it at 4-4 at 9:24 of the third period after Staal scored his 41st at 5:42 during a delayed penalty to cut the deficit to 4-3.”There’s a lot of good you can take from this game,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. ”You battled back against the team that’s the best third-period team in the League. They stayed with the program and consequently got rewarded for it a little bit.”Brown got the Kings on the board 55 seconds into the game, but Murphy tied the game at 1 when his shot into traffic redirected off Christian Folin and past Quick at 3:12
Anaheim Ducks T-Shirts Womens , and Dumba put the Wild ahead at 5:02.But Brown kept creating scoring chances. He made it 2-all when he scored during a 5-on-3 power play at 7:42, waiting at the front of the net to score off Jeff Carter’s centering pass.”You just plug away really,” Brown said of his turnaround. ”I got an opportunity this year to play big minutes and be a huge part of the team. That’s probably the more important thing is that I was able to help the team make the playoffs.”However, Brown was more concerned with how the Kings let the Wild back into the game and what it might portend headed into the playoffs.”I don’t know what it is in our DNA, but we seem to make it hard on ourselves a lot,” Brown said. ”The thing is we do that and then we come back and win, so the stats probably lie a little bit when you see the record holding a lead after two periods. We try to get heroics every night, which is probably something we need to avoid next week.”NOTES: Kings F Torrey Mitchell and D Paul LaDue did not play because of flu-like symptoms. The Kings recalled F Jonny Brodzinski and D Oscar Fantenberg from their AHL affiliate on Thursday, but both were scratched against the Wild. … The Wild signed D Louis Belpedio to a two-year, entry-level contract on Thursday. Belpedio, a third-round draft pick of the Wild in 2014 who played college hockey at Miami of Ohio, could make his NHL debut on Saturday.UP NEXTWild: Visit the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.Kings: Host the Dallas Stars on Saturday night.— MONTREAL (AP) Things looked to be getting nasty between P.K. Subban and his former teammates.Subban was held off the scoresheet and played a turnover-filled game, but his Nashville Predators still pulled out a 3-2 shootout victory on Saturday night – mainly thanks to the outstanding play of goalie Pekka Rinne who made 47 saves, including 10 in the five-minute overtime period.Ryan Ellis scored the only goal in the shootout to lift the Predators to the win.The Bell Centre crowd reacted with some boos but mostly cheers each time Subban had the puck. The flashy defenseman remains highly popular in Montreal after his trade to Nashville two summers ago for Shea Weber
Anaheim Ducks Hoodies Womens , who has been out since mid-December with a foot injury.The Canadiens went after Subban early in the game, with Nicolas Deslauriers putting a solid hit on him in the opening minute. And Subban and Brendan Gallagher went at each other in the first period, but the Canadiens’ forward was shaken up while trying to lay a big hit on his former teammate.”I didn’t see a smile from him tonight to be honest with you,” Subban said of Gallagher. ”I just saw the blood dripping down his face after he tried to hit me and fell down.”I didn’t see anything else. Other than that, it was just a normal game, as usual. Just competing in the battles and that’s it.”Gallagher tied the game 1-1 in the second period, then skated to over to the Nashville bench and appeared to say something to Subban.”I don’t think he said anything to me,” Subban said. ”Some guys from the bench were saying stuff, but I couldn’t hear it. … It’s so loud in this building. But I’m sure it’s pretty quiet over there now with two points on our side.”Gallagher said he didn’t want to discuss Subban, but still launched some barbs his way.”I don’t know why we’re talking about him – that’s what he wants,” Gallagher said. ”He comes in here and tries to make it about himself.”It was Subban’s second visit since the trade. Last season, the Canadiens prevailed 2-1.But the teams have gone in different directions since. The Predators have become one of the NHL’s top teams, while the Canadiens have had a disastrous campaign and will almost certainly miss the playoffs.Scott Hartnell and Kevin Fiala scored in regulation for Nashville.Jonathan Drouin also scored for the Canadiens, and Carey Price stopped 30 shots.Fiala gave the Predators a 2-1 lead with his 18th with 7:41 left in the third period. After the Canadiens pulled Price for an extra skater
Anaheim Ducks Hats Womens , Drouin tied it with his eighth with 1:14 remaining.”I thought we deserved better,” said Montreal coach Claude Julien, who didn’t want to talk about Subban. ”The game plan was to get pucks behind their defensemen, it wasn’t about P.K. Subban. Obviously the attention is on him because it always is, but it wasn’t about an individual.”Arturri Lehkonen stripped the puck from Filip Forsberg at the Nashville line. Gallagher grabbed it and saw his first shot blocked by Subban, but Gallagher picked up the rebound and beat Rinne from close range for his 20th goal of the season at 8:35 of the second.A bouncing puck in front of the Montreal net went to Nick Bonino, who slipped it to Hartnell for the tying score with 3:38 remaining in the middle period.After a sprawled Price made a glove save at the side of the net on Ryan Johansen, the Nashville center slipped the rebound back to uncovered Fiala for a backhander into an open side.NOTES: On Friday, Subban brought several Nashville teammates along as he visited the Montreal Children’s Hospital, to which he pledged to raise $10 million for when he played for the Canadiens and has stuck with even though he no longer lives in the city. … Forsberg returned after serving a three-game suspension for a high hit on Jimmy Vesey of the New York Rangers. … Half of the Predators’ defense are former Canadiens – Subban, Alexei Emelin and Yannick Weber. … Emelin took a penalty for an open-ice hit that was a knee-on-knee contact that left Nikita Scherbak limping in the first period.UP NEXTPredators: Host St. Louis on Tuesday night to start a four-game homestand.Canadiens: At Colorado on Wednesday night to open a four-game trip.
