What we learned from the Kings’ 1-0 overtime win against the Penguins

What we learned from the Kings’ 1-0 win at Pittsburgh on Friday night:

Coach Darryl Sutter had no complaints about his goaltending

We’ll see if Sutter’s happiness lasts, but Peter Budaj’s 39-save shutout was the kind of carry-the-team-on-my-back performance that Sutter had been waiting to see since Jonathan Quick was injured in the season opener.

Sutter also had praise for the penalty killers, who silenced four Pittsburgh power plays. “They gave us a lot of, I wouldn’t say energy, because we were a tired hockey club tonight, but I think it really gave us belief and strength going into the third,” he said. “Showed a lot of resilience. I was proud of our team [Friday].”

But nothing is ever perfect, and Sutter wasn’t smiling when asked about why the Kings have been successful in overtime and have a 7-2 record in sudden-death play. “What’s more important is the regulation wins,” he said. “Regulation wins are really important criteria in making playoffs.”

There’s a method to the madness of three-on-three overtime

The Kings have been one of the NHL’s top puck-possession teams the past few years. Is puck-possession skill a reason they’ve so successful in overtime?

“One thing that does get overlooked is you’ve got to play good defense. You play good D, you get good opportunities the other way,” defenseman Alec Martinez said. “Puck possession is huge. Faceoffs are huge, because that ties into puck possession.”

Budaj also said paying attention to the defensive aspects of three-on-three play is important. “Three-on-three is very tricky,” he said. “You’ve got to hold on to the puck. You can’t throw blind passes because it’s an automatic three-on-two the other way.”

Which is basically what happened Friday, when Penguins forward Phil Kessel broke his stick and Martinez, Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli teamed up for the winning goal. “Fortunate for us and unfortunate for them, Phil Kessel broke the stick on a shot and they were automatically three-on-two,” Budaj said. “[Our] guys made a nice play and Tyler made a nice shot.”

The Kings are surviving without Jonathan Quick

Their season seemed doomed when Quick got hurt, and injuries to forwards Marian Gaborik and Anze Kopitar and to defenseman Brayden McNabb piled up quickly and cast a cloud over their playoff prospects.

Despite all of that, the Kings are 9-3-1 since Nov. 17. That includes two wins in three games so far on this seven-game trip, which launches a stretch of nine straight road games. It hasn’t always been pretty, and if someone finds Gaborik’s scoring touch somewhere, he wants it back. But Kopitar has returned and McNabb is practicing back in Southern California. As a team, the Kings showed impressive resilience in winning at Detroit and Pittsburgh after their trip-opening stinker at Buffalo, and Tyler Toffoli (three goals in the last two games) seems to have emerged from a scoring slump.

The key is to keep building confidence and cohesion as the season goes on, without losing their work ethic or identity as a hardworking team. “We’re heading in the right direction,” Toffoli said. “We’ve just got to keep going and keep building and taking care of ourselves, and get ready to play that afternoon game [Sunday] in Boston.”

After that game, incidentally, they will have a mandated day off on Monday before they play at Columbus on Tuesday.`

helene.elliott@latimes.com

Follow Helene Elliott on Twitter @helenenothelen