Derek Ryan scores twice, Hurricanes defeat Kings

LOS ANGELES --Derek Ryan scored two goals, and Cam Ward made 21 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes defeat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 at Staples Center on Thursday.
Playing in his 20th NHL game, Ryan, a 29-year-old veteran of the American Hockey League and two European leagues, scored twice in a game for the first time in his NHL career. He has six points (three goals, three assists) over the past seven games.
"Pretty remarkable. Hard to even put it into words," Ryan said. "It's one of those nights where you'll remember it."
Brock McGinn had a goal and an assist for Carolina (11-10-6).

WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Kings highlights
Drew Doughty scored for Los Angeles (13-10-2).

Kings goalie Jeff Zatkoff made 15 saves in his first start since Nov. 11. It was the first time he played a full game this season.
"We just didn't play nearly as good enough as we needed to, especially at home," Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. "Obviously, we've given up easy first two goals off a rush and an odd-man rush again in the second. You just can't afford those. In the third, we know we have to throw everything at them, but again, it's a turnover in our zone and it ends up in the back of our net."
Ryan made it 1-0 with 2:09 left in the first period when he was left alone in the slot, took a pass from Andrej Nestrasil and beat Zatkoff with a backhand.
He scored shorthanded at 13:13 of the second period to give Carolina a 2-0 lead, finishing off a 2-on-1 with McGinn. Ryan picked up speed through the neutral zone, sent a no-look pass behind Doughty to McGinn, who passed it back to him underneath a diving Doughty.
"I fed it to him first, he kind of spun and found me, and I gave it right back to him," McGinn said. "He put it in. I saw it go underneath him, for sure."

McGinn scored 4:20 into the third period to make it 3-0 when he took a pass from Victor Rask and went top shelf with Phillip Di Giuseppe screening Zatkoff.
Doughty, who turned 27 on Thursday, ended Ward's shutout bid when he scored his fifth goal at 12:50 of the third period to make it 3-1.
Ward was starting for the second time in as many nights. He allowed five goals on 38 shots in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said he felt comfortable making the decision given the short trip.
"It was only a 20-25 minute bus ride, so the travel time wasn't a factor," Peters said. "It's a very competitive situation, and the travel sets up that if we want to run with a goaltender, which is Ward right now, we can."

Goal of the game

Ryan used some pretty puck-handling in going forehand to backhand and fooling Zatkoff for his first of the night.

Save of the game

Los Angeles had a chance to cut Carolina's 2-0 lead in half with a little more than a minute left in the second period when Kopitar set up a wide-open Doughy for a redirection in front of the net, but Ward closed his legs on the puck with 1:08 remaining, keeping the lead at two.

Unsung performance of the game

Defenseman Jaccob Slavin started the play that led to Ryan's shorthanded goal when he won the puck along the boards in the Hurricanes zone, avoiding Jordan Nolan and Kopitar, and sent it to center ice for McGinn to start the 2-on-1 with Ryan.

Highlight of the game

Ryan scored on a pretty give-and-go with McGinn. "I felt some pressure from Doughty there and I tried to get it over to him behind my back," Ryan said. "I was kind of expecting him to shoot it, but he ended up putting it right on my tape for a wide-open net. Probably one of those goals that my family will watch for a while."

They said it

"The knock on [Derek Ryan] would be that he's a little bit undersized and maybe doesn't have the top-end speed that a lot of guys at this level do have. But he's got a great hockey mind and he's got elite vision and he makes plays. He's got a lot of confidence in himself, he's led a lot of leagues that he's played in and some high-caliber leagues like the Swedish Hockey League, prior to coming over to North America. … It's a good story." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters
"Our top guys were not very efficient out there maximizing what their God gave them." -- Kings coach Darryl Sutter

Need to know

Hurricanes forward Elias Lindholm missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury. … The Kings did not take a penalty for the seventh time in their history, first since Dec. 19, 2015, at the Toronto Maple Leafs. ... The Carolina penalty kill, which is No. 1 in the NHL (92.0 percent), was 3-for-3 and has killed 17 straight over five games.

What's next

Hurricanes: At the San Jose Sharks on Saturday (10:30 p.m. ET; CSN-CA, FS-CR, NHL.TV)
Kings: Host the Ottawa Senators on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; FS-W, TSN5, RDS, NHL.TV)