ARI@LAK: Brown scores in opening minute of 3rd

LOS ANGELES -- Dustin Brown scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period, and the Los Angeles Kings extended their winning streak to a season-high four games with a 2-1 victory against the Arizona Coyotes at Staples Center on Thursday.

Jake Muzzin scored, and Jonathan Quick made 26 saves for the Kings (15-20-3), who have earned at least a point in six of their past seven games (4-1-2).
"It shouldn't be fun when we're losing, and it's not fun when we're losing," Brown said. "To get three, four in a row is really good for, I think, the feeling in the room, the energy level. I think we have to find a way to use that and keep the momentum going the right way."
WATCH: [All Coyotes vs. Kings highlights]
Jakob Chychrun scored a power-play goal for the Coyotes (16-19-2), who lost for the first time in three games. Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves, and Alex Galchenyuk and Conor Garland each had an assist to extend his point streak to three games.
Brown scored 17 seconds into the third period to give Los Angeles a 2-1 lead. It was his second goal in the past 13 games.

ARI@LAK: Muzzin has shot pinball off three defenders

The Coyotes said they felt they established control in the second period, but Drew Doughty stole the puck from Derek Stepan in the neutral zone seven seconds into the third period, and Brown skated in from the Kings' side of the red line to beat Kuemper short side from the bottom of the right face-off circle.
"I think we were all over them in that second period," Chychrun said. "We felt like our legs were there and we felt like maybe theirs were getting a little tired, so we wanted to go out for a big third. Obviously, that's not the way you want to start a period, so we were kind of behind the eight ball in that third period."
Arizona's Nick Cousins had an apparent goal at 12:05 of the second period waved off because of incidental contact with Quick.
Muzzin tied it 1-1 at 18:39 of the first period when his shot deflected off the sticks of Cousins and Josh Archibald before going in off Niklas Hjalmarsson's cheek.
Kuemper said it was "just a weird goal."
"There's nothing you can do about it," Chychrun said. "You just got to move on from it. Those bounces are going to happen. It's the way you respond."
Brown said it was the kind of bounce the Kings had not been getting during their poor start to the season and was needed to overcome a poor performance.
"Tonight, we have to be honest with ourselves that we weren't very good, especially in the second," Brown said. "We were lucky to get out of it, whereas the other three previous games, I thought we played a really solid 60 minutes. But we found a way to win, and, again, that's something our team needs to learn how to do. Sometimes you're not going to win every game, or you shouldn't win some games, and good teams find ways to win those."
Chychrun gave the Coyotes a 1-0 lead at 15:27 of the first period, scoring his second goal of the season with a slap shot over Quick's left shoulder. Both of Chychrun's goals have come on the power play, and he has scored five of his 13 NHL goals with the man-advantage.

ARI@LAK: Quick secures puck with his legs for save

They said it

"We worked hard. Three-day (Christmas) break or whatever, we worked hard. Didn't win the game, so we get back to the drawing board at practice and, you know, keep grinding away. Shoot some pucks, hopefully get some healthy bodies. But like I said, the effort was there." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet
"I think we've been playing some pretty good games. Today looked like a game after Christmas. It wasn't our best game. Certainly wasn't [Arizona's] either, but I think we can play better. We had a good first period, and then we fell off a little bit, so if we want to keep sustaining though, we'll have to play better than we did tonight, for sure." -- Kings coach Willie Desjardins

ARI@LAK: Desjardins on Kings' tough win over Coyotes

Need to know

Center Brad Richardson, who leads the Coyotes with 10 goals, did not play because of an illness. ... Forward Kyle Clifford had an assist on Muzzin's goal for his 100th NHL point in his 564th game. ... Muzzin has two goals and two assists in the past five games. ... The Kings have won five of their past seven games at Staples Center, including three in a row. ... Doughty and Anze Kopitar each had an assist for the second straight game. ... Galchenyuk has two goals and two assists during his point streak. ... Garland has two goals and an assist during his point streak.

What's next

Coyotes: At the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; FS-W, FS-A, NHL.TV)
Kings:Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, FS-W, ATTSN-RM, NHL.TV)

Kings win fourth straight behind Quick, Brown