Rangers Face Off Against Streaking Kings

(AP) -- Some stellar play on the road has keyed the Los Angeles Kings' recent success.

The surging Kings look to extend their season-high road winning streak to four while trying to match the club record for consecutive games with at least one point Thursday night against the New York Rangers.

Los Angeles (32-22-3) improved to 5-0-2 on its season-high 10-game trip with a 4-3 shootout win at Columbus on Wednesday. The Kings, 15-13-2 away from home this season, are in the midst of a 6-0-2 road stretch.

They've also gone 8-0-2 overall following a 2-10-0 stretch and remain very much in the hunt for a playoff spot in the wild Western Conference.

The Kings now can match a franchise record of 11 consecutive games with a point set in 1974 during their visit to Madison Square Garden, where they lost 4-2 in their most recent trip on Oct. 14, 2009.

"We could have stumbled here on the road trip but we also could have had a homestand last month that went differently," said Jonathan Quick, who had 21 saves Wednesday. "It's starting to even out but we're still fighting for that playoff spot. It's a real tight conference right now and we have to battle every night."

Rookie Andrei Loktionov had a goal with an assist and Jarret Stoll recorded the lone shootout goal as the Kings scored at least four goals for third time in four games.

Stoll, who had two goals in his previous three games, has one with two assists in three career games against the Rangers at MSG.

All-Star defenseman Drew Doughty has a chance to score in a third straight game for the first time in his brief, but stellar career, as the Kings try for a second consecutive victory over the Rangers (30-24-4).

Anze Kopitar and Ryan Smyth each scored while Quick stopped 20 shots in a 2-1 home win over New York on Feb. 2, 2010.

The Rangers, meanwhile, will try to win consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 22-24, after snapping a season-high six-game skid with a 5-3 win over Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Ryan Callahan scored twice and added an assist as New York overcame a 2-0 deficit to win for the first time in February.

The Rangers are seventh in the East, two points ahead of eighth-place Carolina.

"It's definitely good to stop the bleeding," Callahan said. "At the same time, we've got to get another win now and start building them together. I don't think this is over until we start winning two or three in a row."

To do that, the Rangers will need to keep up the pressure in the offensive zone after scoring more than three goals for the first time in 10 games. New York also recorded three power-play goals Sunday after scoring eight its previous 70 chances with the man advantage.

New York's Vinny Prospal has two goals with an assist in five games since missing 53 while recovering from knee surgery. He had two and an assist against the Kings in their 2009 visit to MSG.

Henrik Lundqvist, who made 26 saves to snap a personal four-game skid Sunday, is 1-3-0 with a 3.02 goals-against average versus Los Angeles.

Updated February 17, 2011
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