Jeff Carter deflects winner for Kings in OT

This was the definition of a bounce-back game for a long list of Kings players.

But before they could quite get to that destination, they had to survive a wobble and a bad bounce or two at the end of regulation, needing forward Jeff Carter’s power-play goal just 28 seconds into overtime to secure a 4-3 victory over the persistent Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night at Staples Center.

Mike Richards’ shot deflected off Carter’s stick past Senators goalie Craig Anderson. Richards had told his longtime linemate to be ready in front, and Carter, who scored twice and added an assist, didn’t need to be told twice.

“It wasn’t pretty, but we stuck with it and got the point,” Carter said in his postgame TV interview. “He [Richards] made a great shot and got it through.”

Kings defenseman Matt Greene was the first player to congratulate goalie Jonathan Quick after the win. Quick had denied Cory Conacher with a tough blocker save and seconds later stopped Stephane Da Costa late in regulation.

He stopped that one-two punch with about five minutes remaining. But it was the next blow that followed that sent the game into overtime. With 4:27 left, the Senators tied it at 3-3 on Milan Michalek’s shot through traffic.

Former Ducks forward Bobby Ryan had pulled the Senators within one with his power-play goal at 5:58 of the third. It was his first goal as a Senator and he added an assist on the third Ottawa goal.

Quick, who gave up a baffling own goal from long range in Monday’s 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers, played a controlled game against the Senators, but he didn’t have a massive amount of work until the tense third period.

Carter noted that the Kings’ top players need to step up and they did against the Senators. The key contributors were Anze Kopitar, captain Dustin Brown and several members of the defense corps. Brown scored twice and Kopitar had two assists. Richards also had two assists.

The Kings took a 3-0 lead in the first period on a mere nine shots — scoring twice on the power play — and held on tight as the Senators scored once in the second period and early in the third to inject doubt into the proceedings.

Brown, pointless in the first three games of the season, did a skillful job of agitating, drawing two penalties helping lead to the Kings’ power-play goals. His first goal came just after he got out of the penalty box with a surge of speed down the right-wing side, beating Anderson on the far side.

It’s almost a tradition for Ottawa to struggle in games at Staples Center; the only time the Senators have won here was 13 years ago.

Kings Coach Darryl Sutter made a couple of lineup adjustments, taking out center Colin Fraser and inserting a dose of energy in the form of left wing Daniel Carcillo. Carcillo, making his Kings debut, played on a line with former Philadelphia Flyers teammates Richards and Carter.

The other tweak to the roster involved a swap of defensemen. Second-year defenseman Jake Muzzin was taken out in favor of Alec Martinez, who got into his first game of the season. Muzzin was a minus-five in the first three games and Sutter was blunt about his woes after practice on Tuesday, saying: “He’s struggling a lot.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

Twitter: @reallisa