Kings avoid getting comfortable at home, extend win streak to seven

After sweeping a five-game trip, the Kings came home and played a perfect road game to earn their seventh straight victory.

Playing their first game at Staples Center since Jan. 21, the Kings on Tuesday were energetic, patient and opportunistic against the New York Rangers, capitalizing on two key breaks to earn a 2-1 victory before an announced sellout crowd.

“That was a real hard game with a tremendous effort,” Coach Terry Murray said. “They understand their responsibility to come out and play hard.”

That they did, from start to nerve-wracking finish.

Anze Kopitar scored a short-handed goal at 16:43 of the second period after Marian Gaborik made a bad pass in the Kings’ zone, and Ryan Smyth made it 2-0 at 11:14 of the third period after a turnover by the Rangers and a fine feed from Dustin Brown off the left wing.

Jonathan Quick lost his shutout with 2:37 to play, on Gaborik’s redirection of a backhand pass from Erik Christensen, but he made a point-blank glove save on Chris Drury with a second to play to ensure he would extend his personal winning streak to a career-best seven games.

The Rangers, who acquired Olli Jokinen and Brandon Prust from Calgary late Monday and had both players in their lineup, lost for the sixth time in seven games.

“We’re excited to be home and wanted to respond for the fans and get them on our side but we just wanted to play simple and sometimes simple is the best way,” said Smyth, whose quick wrist shot went over the glove of goalie Henrik Lundqvist.

“We just kept that road mentality, for sure.”

The Kings’ winning streak is one short of the club record set in 1972-73 and matched in 1991-92. They also preserved their perfect record in games they’ve led after two periods, improving to 21-0-0 in those games.

Knowing that teams often experience a letdown in their first home game after a long journey, the Kings were determined to stay on an even emotional keel.

Their play in the first period was solid, even though they didn’t score, and they built from there. “We did a lot of good things,” center Jarret Stoll said of that period.

“We’re getting timely goals, timely saves, timely plays. Our goal is to just keep piling up the points. We understand it’s not easy. Every win you get is tough. You’ve got to battle for it.

“The way our conference is now and the way we keep finding ways to win games we’ve got to keep pushing. Everybody knows their role and is playing their role.”

The Kings capitalized on a bad pass by Gaborik during a Rangers power play to score their fourth short-handed goal of the season.

With the Rangers using five forwards on their power play, Gaborik had the puck along the right-wing boards and tried to slide it back to the blue line to Drury.

But Kopitar stepped in front of Drury and raced up the right wing before taking a wrist shot from about 35 feet that sailed over Lundqvist’s left shoulder at 16:43.

“I saw two forwards on the blue line and I’m not sure what Jokinen was thinking just giving me a clear cut to the net,” Kopitar said. “After that it was pretty much deciding where I wanted to shoot and I shot it and it went in.”

The unassisted goal was Kopitar’s first short-handed score this season and it extended his points streak to seven straight games. He has five goals and 11 points in that span.

Like his teammates, he’s learning about consistency and competitiveness and how to enjoy prosperity.

Certainly new and heady stuff for this team, but the Kings seem to be learning their lessons well.

Not much had to be said about avoiding that typical first-game-home letdown, and that alone says a lot about how far this team has come this season.

“I don’t think that any special energy was needed,” Kopitar said. “We had a 5-0 road trip and everybody’s feeling great. Everybody’s confident. . . .

“We come in here, we knew the crowd was going to be good and we came out strong and I thought we played a solid game.”

helene.elliott@latimes.com

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