Kings’ Milan Lucic keeps the goals coming, scoring his 10th in 3-1 win over Lightning

Yes, you can say with assurance that Kings left wing Milan Lucic is ahead of schedule.

Miles ahead, in fact.

Lucic scored his 10th goal of the season and third in the last two days, helping lead the Kings to a 3-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night at Staples Center.

Last season, Lucic, then with the Boston Bruins, didn’t score his first goal until Oct. 23, didn’t get his 10th until Jan. 29, and finished with 18. He was traded to the Kings in late June.

“It just goes to show how frustrating a season can go,” Lucic said. “When you get down on yourself and your game, you start to feel the pressure and stuff like that.

“My main focus, before coming here, was having a fresh start and a positive frame of mind where I can start having fun and contributing the way I can. That’s something I put a lot of focus and emphasis on throughout the summer.”

His goal-scoring output sparked the Kings, who swept a four-game homestand and now embark on a road-heavy schedule with 10 of their next 11 games away from Staples.

Lucic, who has nicely complemented the likes of center Jeff Carter and right wing Tyler Toffoli, made it 3-1 at 3:47 of the second period.

There were other key contributions, including 24 saves from goalie Jonathan Quick, who was especially sharp as he recorded his 14th victory of the season. He has a 1.72 goals-against average during this four-game winning streak.

“Well, it’s like a broken tape,” said Kings center Anze Kopitar, who recorded his 400th career assist. “Everybody’s talking about it. But he’s been great for us the past seven years here. There’s really nothing new to say.”

The defense produced another goal for the Kings, this one coming from youngster Brayden McNabb, who scored his first of the season and added an assist for his first multi-point performance of the season. His goal broke a 1-1 tie 39 seconds into the second period. It came off the draw as Kopitar lost his stick and the momentum propelled the puck to McNabb.

“I think I kicked the puck back off the draw,” Kopitar said. “I knew I wasn’t going to make it all the way. Then I tried to poke it, lost my stick in the process and then I think the momentum of my stick pushed the puck back.

“That’s the first one for me. I don’t think I’ve had one quite like this before.”

It came a mere 12 seconds after Tampa Bay forward Brian Boyle had beaten Quick with a shot from the right circle.

The McNabb goal brought a quick response from Lightning Coach Jon Cooper, who pulled starting goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy and replaced him with Ben Bishop.

Bishop had escaped a potentially serious eye injury Saturday night at San Jose, bringing on the rare start for Vasilevskiy, who gave up two goals on 10 shots and didn’t look sharp, particularly on the Kings’ first goal, when Andy Andreoff beat him on the blocker side at 12:24 of the first period with a shot from the left circle.

Kings-Lightning 2.0 had little resemblance to the first installment, played less than two weeks ago in Tampa, which the Lightning won in a shootout.

Lewis update

Kings forward Trevor Lewis missed the weekend games against Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay with an undisclosed upper-body injury. But Kings Coach Darryl Sutter said Lewis would travel with the team on the upcoming six-game trip, which starts Tuesday at Columbus.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Twitter: @reallisa