Kings beat the New Jersey Devils, 2-0

NEWARK, N.J. – As Stanley Cup rematches go, this left something to be desired.

On Friday night, the Kings played the New Jersey Devils for the first time in 16 months, and it was a dull, uninspiring game. Scoreless into the third period, it was finally decided by Dwight King’s goal, his sixth of the season, with less than seven minutes left in regulation.

King was stationed in front of Devils goaltender Cory Schneider when he redirected Jake Muzzin’s point shot, the second time in the last two nights that the Kings have pulled out a road victory in the third period. Six goals is a career high for King.

Anze Kopitar made it 2-0 for the Kings, with goaltender Ben Scrivens picking up his fourth career shutout and his second of the season, on an empty-netter with 2.9 seconds left.

Unlike the 2012 Stanley Cup Final, however, when the teams put on a far more memorable show, with the Kings eventually triumphing in six tense games, this meeting lived down to the hype. It came up short in all the key departments: energy, entertainment and emotion.

The Kings, though, could be forgiven because they played last night against the New York Islanders and were without four regulars because of injuries, including starting goaltender Jonathan Quick and forward Jeff Carter, their most reliable goal scorer.

The Devils, meanwhile, are a shadow of the team that gave the Kings a scare two years ago. Since then, they’ve lost Ilya Kovalchuk to Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League and Zach Parise to the Minnesota Wild as a free agent. Even Ryan Clowe, whom the Kings loved to hate back in his San Jose Sharks’ days, didn’t play because of an undisclosed injury.

Kings center Jarret Stoll returned to the lineup after missing the last four games with an undisclosed upper-body injury.

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