Scherbak scores in debut for Kings in win against Golden Knights

LOS ANGELES -- Nikita Scherbak scored in his debut for the Los Angeles Kings, a 5-1 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Staples Center on Saturday.

Scherbak was claimed off waivers from the Montreal Canadiens on Dec. 2.
Derek Forbort had a goal and an assist, Jake Muzzin and Michael Amadio each had two assists and Jonathan Quick made 29 saves for Los Angeles (11-18-1), which had lost two straight.
WATCH: [All Golden Knights vs. Kings highlights]
It was the first game for the Kings since Drew Doughty called their season "embarrassing" and that the team had been "playing with a lack of emotion."
"It's probably one of our more dominant wins and we actually played a good team here in Vegas, (a) very good team," said Doughty, who had an assist in his 800th NHL game. "It was a full 60 minutes. I thought everyone played hard. There wasn't one guy that took a night off. So when your team does that, you're going to win more hockey games and hopefully we realized that tonight because we need to win more."
Oscar Lindberg scored, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves for Vegas (16-14-1), which is 7-2-0 in its past nine games.
"It looked like we were tired today for some reason. That's what it looked like from the bench," Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. "We had a couple of good shifts when it was 4-1, three or four good shifts back-to-back, but that was it all day. We just didn't have no push, and [Los Angeles] played real hard and played really well and took advantage of a team that was a little bit disorganized today."
It was the first meeting between the two teams since the Golden Knights completed a four-game sweep against the Kings in the 2018 Western Conference First Round.
"Yeah, it's a new season, whatever, but you never forget those types of things," Doughty said. "I hope no one on this team ever forgot that. It was definitely one of the things we talked about. They kicked us out, let's get them back. It's not getting them back, not even close, but we won, so it's a start."
Matt Luff gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead at 12:30 of the second period with a power-play goal, scoring on a one-timer in the slot off a tic-tac-toe pass with Brendan Leipsic and Adrian Kempe.

The Golden Knights had successfully killed 22 straight penalties before Luff's goal.
Jeff Carter made it 3-1 at 16:46. He caught Fleury out of position and sent the puck back into the crease, where it hit the right skate of Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt and deflected in.
Forbort extended the lead to 4-1 at 2:48 of the third period on a shot from the point past a screened Fleury.

Nate Thompson made it 5-1 at 18:33, scoring on a one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Muzzin.
Lindberg gave the Golden Knights a 1-0 lead at 4:23 of the first period with his first goal of the season. After Quick saved Tomas Nosek's wraparound attempt, Lindberg got the rebound and scored five-hole.
Scherbak tied it at 1-1 at 8:12, shooting between the legs of Schmidt and scoring glove side.

"That's probably one of those moments that is going to stick to my memory for a while, definitely," Scherbak said. "And that's a great win. We deserved it. It's fun when you come back in the room when everybody is happy, for sure."

They said it

"I don't think it matters when we play them where either of us at is. It's going to be a hard-fought game. You give anybody that much time or that much room and they're going to be able to make some plays, and that's what we did. We allowed them too much time tonight." -- Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt
"I think what's brighter is our young guys played well. Usually, if we're going to win, it's always the [Anze] Kopitar and [Dustin] Brown, guys like that that are going to carry us, or [Jeff] Carter. It's nice to win with some young guys. It's something we're going to need to see more of." -- Kings coach Willie Desjardins

Need to know

Scherbak also scored in his NHL debut with the Canadiens on Jan. 7, 2017. ... Kings forward Kyle Clifford left the game after he sustained an upper-body injury in the second period on a hit by Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. … Muzzin's assist on Scherbak's goal was his 200th NHL point. … Carter's goal was his second at even strength in 30 games this season. … Quick is 2-3-0 with a 2.23 goals-against average and .928 save percentage in five starts since returning from knee surgery.

What's next

Golden Knights:Host the Dallas Stars on Sunday (9 p.m. ET; ATTSN-RM, FS-SW, NHL.TV)
Kings: At the Detroit Red Wings on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-D+, FS-W, NHL.TV)