Senators score late to defeat Kings, Peter Budaj

OTTAWA -- Mark Stone scored with 6.5 seconds left in the third period to give the Ottawa Senators a 2-1 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Canadian Tire Centre on Friday.
Stone, who hadn't scored in nine games, dug for a loose puck in the crease and put it behind Kings goaltender Peter Budaj.
Jeff Zatkoff started the game for the Kings and made 18 saves in the first two periods. Leading 1-0, he was replaced by Budaj to start the third. Budaj made 13 saves.

Zatkoff was playing for the first time since he was injured at practice on Oct. 23.
"Zatkoff pulled himself after the second period," Kings coach Darryl Sutter said. "I don't know what it is."
WATCH: All Senators vs. Kings highlights
Dwight King scored for the Kings (7-8-0), to give them a 1-0 lead 56 seconds into the second period.
Zack Smith scored for the Senators (9-5-0), and Craig Anderson made 32 saves.

Smith tied the game 1-1 at 16:06 of the third period. He settled a rolling puck in the right-wing circle and Budaj stopped his shot. Smith knocked the rebound out of the air into the net for his third goal of the season.
"We pressed really well in the third period," Stone said. "We started to make little plays that kind of wore them down, where as in past games maybe we tried to make the big play right away.
"We opened up little things off the rush, and that led to zone time and really wore them down."
Los Angeles center Anze Kopitar left in the third period after playing four shifts.
"[Kopitar] is banged up. He came back and tried," Sutter said.
King scored his second of the season when he went to the front of the net and a backhand shot by Jeff Carter went in off King's leg.

Goal of the game

In the final seconds of the third period, a shot by Senators captain Erik Karlsson hit Budaj, trickled between his pads and ended up near the right post. Stone beat Carter and Kings defenseman Alec Martinez to the loose puck to score the winning goal.

Save of the game

With the Senators on the power play eight minutes into the second period, Zatkoff moved quickly to his left to stop Mike Hoffman's shot.

Highlight of the game

Smith showed some pretty good hand-eye coordination on his goal, following up his shot to knock the rebound out of the air and into the net to tie the game.

Unsung moment of the game

The Kings didn't give up a shot during the Senators' 22 seconds with a 5-on-3 power play in the second period.

They said it

"We weren't tired. We just didn't execute our game plan. We went in there trying to get another goal in the third and try and push it on them and play in the offensive zone, and we weren't able to do that. They kind of pushed back. That's not what our team does. We don't give up the lead in the last five minutes of the game. That's been our thing for a long time. It's pretty frustrating right now, but we've got a game in Winnipeg coming up (on Sunday)." -- Kings defenseman Drew Doughty on whether back-to-back games caught up with them
"The power play now, I think I'll go light some candles at church. My goodness. A great play, a perfect one-timer, wide open net, my hands are up in the air, and he hits their defenseman's knob. You know you're a little snake bit there." -- Senators coach Guy Boucher on their power play, which is 1-for-20 in the past seven games
"We played as good as we could. We were a little understaffed in the third period. We had chances. … You know they're going to come hard in [the] third. They've got a lot of forwards who drive hard, and both the goals they scored we've got defensemen laying around the net. We lost a couple of battles there." -- Kings coach Darryl Sutter
"I used to play ball, about three or four years ago for the Maple Creek Mohawks. Unfortunately, I think my teammates could attest, that I wasn't very good at batting. I was pretty good at third base. I think I redeemed myself with that one." -- Senators forward Zack Smith on his goal

Need to know

Senators forward Chris Neil returned after missing one game. Forward Mike Blunden was scratched. … The Senators have scored two goals or fewer in each of their past eight games. They have won five of those games. … Kings defenseman Matt Greene was a scratch. His place was taken by Tom Gilbert.

What's next

Kings: At the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday (2 p.m. ET; TSN3, FS-W, NHL.TV)
Senators: Host the Minnesota Wild on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, TSN5, FS-N, FS- WI, NHL.TV)