Kings rally to victory

Anze Kopitar’s two goals and assist helped the Kings recover after they allowed Washington’s Alexander Semin to score only 15 seconds into the game as the Kings defeated the Capitals, 5-4, Thursday night for their fifth victory in their last six games.

“The first period wasn’t pretty, but the second period was downright ugly,” Washington Coach Bruce Boudreau said, adding moments later: “They’ve beaten us twice and we’re a better team than them.”

Alex Ovechkin scored his 200th NHL goal but was in no mood to celebrate, as the Capitals’ three-game winning streak came to an end.

“We didn’t play well for two periods, and they just used our mistakes,” Ovechkin said. “I don’t want to talk about my personal stats today.”

Washington was 21-3-1 at home, and was backed by a sellout crowd of 18,277.

“Maybe we were giving them too much respect in the beginning,” Kopitar said. “But after we picked up our game, I think we played pretty good.”

The Kings took leads of 3-1 and 5-3, scored on a five-on-three power play and added a short-handed goal.

“I don’t know what’s happening with us, but after [Semin’s] goal, we just stopped playing,” Ovechkin said. “Didn’t play our system. We didn’t finish checks. We didn’t shoot the puck. We didn’t play our game.”

The Kings were one of only two opponents -- San Jose is the other -- against whom he never had scored.

But Ovechkin scored with about 9 1/2 minutes left in the game, making him one of four NHL players to reach 200 goals in four seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux.

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick withstood quite a barrage in the third period: The Capitals took 22 shots, only one fewer than in the first two periods combined.

“Very exciting there at the end of the game,” Kings Coach Terry Murray said.