First NHL goal a thrill (and relief) for Kings’ Nic Dowd

Who has the Nic Dowd puck? More accurately, the puck that Dowd shot past Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen for his first NHL goal. The Kings were fairly sure someone grabbed the memento for Dowd.

“I think so. I couldn’t tell you for sure,” Kings left wing Tanner Pearson said. “I think Brownie [Dustin Brown] may have went and grabbed it. He [Dowd] will get that framed up and it’ll be a good picture on the wall.”

Said Dowd: “I’m assuming they have it. A couple of guys asked me if it was the first one. I’m sure they grabbed it.”

Dowd didn’t have to wait too long to score his first NHL goal. It came in his eighth NHL game. He played in five games last season and the Stars game was his third of this season, but Dowd admitted to a certain relief.

“I think everybody that comes into the league wants to get the first one out of the way,” Dowd said. “Just like you want to get your first game under your belt, get your first goal.”

Pearson and linemates, winger Devin Setoguchi and center Jeff Carter, have shown some nice chemistry in their two games together and have gained an advantage with their speed. In two games, Pearson has three goals and one assist.

“When he [Carter] gets going, he hardly looks like he’s moving but he’s flying,” Pearson said. “[Carter] and I were walking to the rink in Minnesota and I asked him if he practiced at all with Seto [Setoguchi] and he goes, ‘No.’ So it was good that we had a good first game and we kept it going the second one, too.”

But the Kings have been searching for secondary scoring, which is where Dowd’s goal was especially timely in what turned out to be their first win of the season.

Said Kings Coach Darryl Sutter: “We need some production. That was something we talked about last spring, our third and fourth lines. That was the first goal out of our third and fourth lines.”

The NHL daily notes package highlighted Dowd’s goal and pointed out, via the Elias Sports Bureau, that he was the second player born in Alabama to score a goal in the NHL. The first was defenseman Aud Tuten, who was born in Enterprise, Ala., and scored four goals in parts of two seasons for the Blackhawks in the 1940s.

Unlike Tuten, who was raised in Saskatchewan, Canada, Dowd spent his formative years in Alabama, born and raised in Huntsville. His parents are from England with no hockey background before the Dowd kids started playing. “It was pretty simple,” Dowd said. “My brothers played and just being a younger brother, you do what your older brothers do.”

KINGS NEXT UP

VS. VANCOUVER

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

On the air: TV: Fox Sports West; Radio: 790.

Update: The Canucks are 4-0-0. The only other time Vancouver started the season with four straight wins was in 1992-93.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Follow Lisa Dillman on Twitter @reallisa