Kings beat Senators 5-3 to spoil Dave Cameron's debut as Ottawa coach

OTTAWA, Ontario — Anze Kopitar scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period and the Los Angeles Kings beat Ottawa 5-3 on Thursday night in Dave Cameron's debut as coach of the Senators.

Cameron took over Monday when Paul MacLean was fired.

Matt Greene, Justin Williams, Trevor Lewis and Tanner Pearson also scored for the Kings. Jake Muzzin had three assists, and Jonathan Quick made 32 saves.

Bobby Ryan, Mark Stone and Jared Cowen scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson stopped 31 shots.

Trailing 2-1, the Senators got off to a solid start in the third period and tied the game, but in less than two minutes the Kings regained a two-goal lead. Ottawa came close to completing the comeback, but fell just short.

With 1:21 remaining, Cowen got a shot through traffic that eluded Quick and cut Ottawa's deficit to 4-3. But the Kings made the most of an empty net when Pearson scored his 11th of the season.

Stone jumped on David Legwand's rebound and tied it 2-all with a short-handed goal 1:44 into the third. But only 36 seconds later, Kopitar — who hadn't scored in 10 games — was left all alone in front and beat Anderson.

The Kings jumped out to a 2-0 second-period lead before the Senators were able to cut the lead in half on Ryan's goal.

Ryan, playing with a broken finger, dangled the puck past Brayden McNabb and then beat Quick on his backhand. The goal had the 17,284 fans on hand chanting Ryan's name.

Los Angeles made it 2-0 midway through the period when Williams, who appeared to be looking for a wide-open Marian Gaborik, had his shot go in off Cody Ceci.

Greene opened the scoring at 1:47 of the second when his shot from just inside the blue line made it through traffic. The play was reviewed but it was ruled that the shot deflected into the net in a legal fashion.

The Senators got off to a good start despite the first period remaining scoreless. Ottawa outshot the Kings 14-5 and didn't allow Los Angeles to register its first shot until the halfway mark of the period.