Kings enjoy the perfect ending against the Devils

From Newark, N.J. — 

The Kings began this journey with a comeback win against Detroit and ended it with comeback wins at Boston and New Jersey, taking home their first-ever perfect record on a five-game trip and much, much more.

“This game today, I think, was a real good look at the type of team we’re starting to become,” Coach Terry Murray said after Wayne Simmonds and Drew Doughty scored on Martin Brodeur in the last two minutes Sunday to lift the Kings to a 3-2 victory over the stunned Devils and win for the eighth time in nine games.

“A lot of character, big heart, never gave up. It looked at times like it was slipping big-time on us and just to dig in in the third period and find a way to get it done was just tremendous.”

The Kings (33-19-3) have a six-game winning streak, their first since March 2002 -- the last season they made the playoffs.

They also stretched their road winning streak to seven, one short of the club record set in the 1974-75 season, and goaltender Jonathan Quick recovered from an admittedly soft second goal by the Devils to stop 14 shots in the third period and 26 overall.

A 4-1 trip would have been acceptable. Commendable.

But not good enough for a group that has shown a ton of mental toughness against some of the NHL’s supposed elite teams.

“Five-and-oh is something different. Especially to get that one off back-to-back nights,” said Simmonds, who was hoping for a rebound when he threw the puck on net from the left-wing boards and was probably as surprised as anyone in the Prudential Center when it eluded Brodeur at 18:14.

“I think we were tired in the first period and we showed it. We made a couple of mistakes in the first period and they capitalized on it, but we came back strong.”

They came back to win during a late power play gained when Devils defenseman Andy Greene was sent off for tripping, a rare lapse in discipline by the NHL’s least-penalized team.

The Kings called a timeout to discuss strategy and it paid off with 28 seconds left. Doughty took a pass from Jack Johnson and made a brilliant move to create some space for himself in the middle of the zone before unleashing a shot while Ryan Smyth and Dustin Brown screened Brodeur.

“Marty’s a world-class goaltender, but he’s been known to let a couple of sharp-angle shots in too,” said Anze Kopitar, who earned the second assist on Doughty’s goal and has points in six straight games. “So we said we’re just going to keep shooting the puck and see what happens, and fortunately for us we got a couple of bounces.”

The Devils scored on their first shot of the game, at 4:45. Zach Parise set it up with a cross-ice pass to defenseman Johnny Oduya, whose shot got past a screened Quick. Travis Zajac made it 2-0 at 5:54 of the second period on a slap shot from about 40 feet, one that Quick couldn’t forget.

“The first one caught a skate and went between the legs. Just a tough bounce,” he said. “The second one, that’s a goal that you want to have back. He just put it on net to try and get a rebound and it went between the legs.”

But nothing else got past him, and the Kings cut New Jersey’s lead to 2-1 at 19:31 of the second period. Alexander Frolov pressured Mike Mottau into turning the puck over, and Scott Parse picked it up. Michal Handzus finished things off from close range.

Quick said he didn’t read much into the Kings’ success against Eastern teams such as Boston and New Jersey on this trip and, before they left home, Buffalo.

“Maybe they’re not doing too well preparing for us,” he said. “I don’t think it’s as much East-West as beating good teams builds good character, especially coming back the way we did these past two nights, coming from a deficit [of] 2-1, 2-0. It just builds character and we’re going to need a lot if we plan on doing well in the playoffs.”

Which they seem intent on doing.

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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