It’s Quick and easy as Kings win 3rd straight

ST. LOUIS —  Jonathan Quick was appreciative of the Kings’ special-team units. Because of their success, his workload was fairly light despite 30 shots.

Ryan Smyth scored the Kings’ sixth power-play goal of the season and the penalty killer stopped St. Louis on five opportunities in a 2-1 victory Saturday night.

Former Blues player Michal Handzus also scored for the Kings, who won their third in a row after opening the season with a home loss to the Phoenix Coyotes.

The Kings, who gave up four power-play goals in a game earlier in the week, made it easy for their goalie, who stopped 29 shots on the night -- 14 in the third period.

“We put an emphasis on our defensive zone, blocking shots and limiting their amount of scoring chances,” Quick said. “Our PK did great tonight, which was good to see because we’ve been struggling the past couple of games.”

Alex Steen scored a short-handed goal for the Blues, who dropped their second straight game at home after opening with a pair of wins over Detroit in Sweden.

“We’re not coming out of the gate hard enough,” Steen said. “The way that we played toward the end of last season, no teams are going to get surprised by our team. They know how hard we work and we should go out there and give them what they expect. So far, we’ve been coming back the second and third periods, but it’s not good enough. We haven’t played a hard 60 minutes yet this year and it’s hurting us.”

The Kings outshot the Blues 7-3 in the opening period, but Quick had to make a sprawling save on the Blues’ Andy McDonald in the slot 76 minutes into the period.