(SportsNetwork.com) - The Vancouver Canucks recovered from a fluke goal early last time out to knock off one of the top teams in the league.
Jonathan Quick and the Los Angeles Kings made things easy on themselves by not giving up a goal at all.
The two streaking clubs meet for the first time this season on Saturday night as the Canucks continue their road trip versus the Kings.
After beginning a four-game swing with a shootout loss to Phoenix, Vancouver visited a San Jose club on Thursday that had yet to lose at home in regulation. Things didn't go the Canucks' way early, but they stayed composed and earned a 4-2 victory to improve to 6-1-1 in their last eight.
Roberto Luongo was a victim of an odd bounce on the Sharks' first goal just 1:17 into the game. San Jose's Joe Thornton dumped the puck wide and the rolling disc bounced off the back boards, up the net, over the crossbar and off Luongo's shoulder before dropping in.
However, Luongo recovered to make 22 saves and the offense got goals from Chris Higgins, Zack Kassian, Brad Richardson and Mike Santorelli.
"No matter what happens in the game, we've been resilient as far as staying focused," Luongo said. "Just sticking to the game plan. Lots of things have happened already this year, but we've responded every time. That's a really good sign for our team."
The only thing that ended up going wrong for Vancouver is that Henrik Sedin was held off the scoresheet, snapping his career-high 12-game point streak.
Luongo is 14-9-4 with a 2.21 goals against average and three shutouts in 27 career games versus the Kings, who are coming off a 2-0 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
Quick celebrated his 300th NHL game with his 26th career shutout and first this season. He ended with 19 saves and the Kings got power-play goals from Mike Richards and Anze Kopitar in winning for the sixth time in nine games.
"Well it's the first time in a while that we did not give up a power-play goal or a penalty-kill goal, so that's a positive and something to build on," Quick said. "We're going to move on. We've got Vancouver on Saturday and that's the focus now."
Kopitar has a goal in three straight games while notching 11 points in his past eight contests. He helped Los Angeles prevail in a game that saw Jeff Carter, Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene all sit out with injuries.
Quick has never recorded a shutout versus the Canucks, going 6-10-1 with a 2.04 GAA in 17 meetings.
Vancouver is 6-1-2 in its last nine against Los Angeles.
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