Kings’ offense keeps buzzing in 5-1 win over Blues

Jake Muzzin drifted with his hockey stick poised, which allowed him to call for the puck while gearing to crush it.

Marian Gaborik waited a few beats before dropping a pass to Muzzin, whose slap shot whisked past St. Louis Blues goaltender Jake Allen and into the net. The Blues immediately replaced Allen, who had already allowed two goals in the first period, with Carter Hutton and it took Tanner Pearson just 51 seconds to score on him.

That’s how it went for the Kings in their 5-1 win over the Blues at Staples Center on Thursday night. They picked on the Blues’ unstable goaltending tandem while Peter Budaj turned in a steady performance of his own. Muzzin scored twice, so did Pearson, and Trevor Lewis found the back of the net for the first time since Dec. 10.

It was the third straight game in which the Kings scored four or more goals. It was the first time since Nov. 8 that they scored five.

“We were dropping in the standings and it’s time to put a roll together here,” Muzzin said. “So it’s a good start.”

The win came exactly three months after starting goaltender Jonathan Quick injured his groin in the first period of the Kings’ season-opening loss to the San Jose Sharks. Quick has not played since, leaving a mix of Budaj and Jeff Zatkoff between the pipes.

Budaj started the season in the American Hockey League but quickly emerged as the Kings’ go-to Band Aid in net. The 34-year-old was 18-11 in 33 starts and allowed 2.13 goals a game heading into Thursday. But he was also three days removed from his worst outing of the season, which included five goals on 22 shots before Zatkoff replaced him midway through the third period of a 6-4 loss to the Dallas Stars.

“In order for us to stay in the race our goaltending’s got to be average,” Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said Thursday morning, handing a tepid challenge to the pair.

Budaj was given the first crack at those expectations. He met them, with a lot of help from his defense and a little help from the posts, while the Blues’ goaltenders repeatedly struggled.

The Kings scored twice in the first — after being buried 6-0 in the three prior first periods — and Budaj knocked away six unthreatening shots on goal. The first Kings score was Muzzin’s second power-play goal in three games, and the second was Trevor Lewis’ slotted wrist shot into the bottom-right corner of the net.

Then the floodgates opened in the second when Muzzin beat Allen, Allen was pulled for the second straight game and Pearson slapped a shot past Hutton soon after.

The Blues got on the board when a pass nicked Paul Stastny’s skate and slid past Budaj’s right pad. But the Kings answered with Pearson’s 13th goal of the season in the period’s final minute. The Blues, known for limiting opponent chances, had just eight shots on goal through two periods. They had two in the entire second. One of them was by Stastny’s right foot.

And after peppering the Blues’ net for 40 minutes, the Kings sat back as Budaj saved 14 third-period shots to ice the bounce-back win.

“Obviously, you can’t let that many goals in,” said Blues Coach Ken Hitchcock. “We’re beating a dead horse, we need better goaltending.”

The Kings, on the other hand, were not left saying the same.

jesse.dougherty@latimes.com

Twitter: @dougherty_jesse