Sens, Kings clash in LA
The Senators had a club-record road point streak halted over the weekend. Avoiding consecutive road losses could be problematic with a trip to Los Angeles now on the docket.
Ottawa looks to win at Los Angeles for the first time in over 12 years as they battle a Kings club that has been racking up points on its own.
The Senators are 0-4 with a tie in their past five trips to Los Angeles since a victory there on Jan. 11, 2000. In fact, that is Ottawa's only victory in franchise history when visiting the City of Angels as it has posted a 1-10-1 all-time record there with a tie.
The Sens had better luck when they hosted the Kings in the only encounter last season, logging a 3-2 victory to snap a three-game series slide. Los Angeles, though, is still 8-2-0 with a tie over the past 11 meetings.
Ottawa carried a club-record 11-game point streak on the road into Saturday's meeting with Anaheim. The Sens had gone 7-0-4 over that run before suffering a 2-1 defeat to the Ducks in regulation.
Chris Neil scored in his 700th career regular-season game, while Craig Anderson made 27 saves. Ottawa lost for just the third time in its last 13 games overall, but fell four points back of the first-place Bruins in the Northeast Division.
"It was nice to score but it would have been nicer to score another one," Neil admitted. "It's disappointing that we let down in the second period and they took advantage of it."
Ottawa plays the fourth of a six-game road trip tonight, visiting a Los Angeles club that is coming off Saturday's 3-1 loss to Colorado. Anze Kopitar had the lone goal and Jonathan Quick made 28 saves as the Kings failed to post a point for only the second time in their past 17 games (9-2-6). That has them a point behind San Jose for first place in the Pacific Division.
"Give them credit, they played a good cycle game," said Kopitar. "We have to find a way to score more goals. It's disappointing we didn't get the two points."
Kopitar has tallied eight points over his last seven games, while Justin Williams assisted on his goal to give him three goals and six helpers over a seven-game point streak.