Quick, Kings shut out Senators, who have nine in NHL COVID-19 protocol

OTTAWA -- Jonathan Quick made 34 saves, and the Los Angeles Kings won their seventh game in a row, 2-0 against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

"I think we're finding ways to win," Quick said. "I don't think we're doing stuff much different than earlier. Like, the first two weeks, you kind of look at the layout of the games and they're pretty similar-type games, 2-2 and then finding a way to lose. Now we're on the other side of it. We're progressing as a team, and doing it on the road, so those are important games."
It was Quick's 55th NHL shutout, moving him into 23rd place.
"He's been outstanding," Kings coach Todd McLellan said. "He hasn't wavered at all. He doesn't want to give his position up in the lineup. We don't expect him to, and it's forced Cal [Petersen] to play well. Any time you can get that from within your team in an 82-game season -- I'm assuming that's what we're going to finish with -- we need both of them in there. They're pushing each other."
Anze Kopitar and Andreas Athanasiou scored for the Kings (8-5-1).
"Tough night," McLellan said. [Ottawa] gave us everything we could handle for a short-staffed team. We expected that from them. And they gave us everything we could handle. They checked, they did a lot of good things, but we were patient. We didn't open things up. Once we got to one [goal] we were patient enough to get to two"

The Senators (3-9-1) have nine players in COVID-19 protocol: forwards Austin Watson, Alex Formenton, Dylan Gambrell and Connor Brown, defensemen Nick Holden, Victor Mete, Nikita Zaitsev and Josh Brown, and goaltender Matt Murray.
"There's not a guy that I can say didn't give everything he had," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "Jonathan Quick's the difference. … It's unfortunate when we're this shorthanded, but I thought our guys couldn't have played much harder."
Filip Gustavsson made 34 saves for Ottawa, which has lost six in a row (0-5-1).
Kopitar's one-timer deflected off Ottawa defenseman Michael Del Zotto's leg on the power play to give the Kings a 1-0 lead at 15:28 of the second period.
Athanasiou tipped an Alexander Edler point shot to make it 2-0 at 16:50 of the third.
Senators defenseman Artem Zub sustained an upper-body injury in the first period during a collision with Kings forward Carl Grundstrom.
"It's unfortunate, and you just kind of have to roll with it," Smith said. "Eventually you're going to get a break, but we just haven't had any this year so far. To our guys' credit, they just moved on and kept playing."

The Kings are dealing with their own injuries and COVID-19 positive tests. Out of the lineup are Sean Walker (ACL/MCL), Drew Doughty (tibial plateau contusion), Lias Andersson (undisclosed), Quinton Byfield (fractured ankle), Viktor Arvidsson (COVID-19 protocol) and Gabriel Vilardi (COVID-19 protocol).
"At first, we were stunned," McLellan said. "When we lost Drew and [Walker] in particular, within three periods of play, I think it affected our group. It was like, 'Now what are we going to do?' It took us a little while to get through it, and then we realized we have players that can play and we needed to play a certain way to have some success."
NOTES: Ottawa was shut out for the first time in 78 games. … Defenseman Dillon Heatherington had one shot and three hits in 16:53 in his Senators debut. His last NHL regular-season game was on Nov. 10, 2018 with the Dallas Stars. … Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot had five shots on goal and blocked two shots playing a game-high 31:53. … Senators defenseman Lassi Thomson played 22:29 in his NHL debut. … Kopitar scored his 101st power-play goal to pass Bernie Nicholls for fifth in Kings history. … Los Angeles forward Adrian Kempe had an assist to extend his point streak to six games (four goals, three assists). … Kings forward Alex Iafallo had his seven-game point streak end (five goals, five assists).