The Los Angeles Kings got the strong start they were hoping for. Their finish was pretty good, too. Justin Williams and Mike Richards scored in a shootout Tuesday night and Los Angeles beat Vancouver 3-2 to hand the Canucks a second straight home loss.

The Kings, who haven't defeated Vancouver in regulation in their last seven games at Rogers Arena, improved to 8-1-5 under Coach Darryl Sutter, who replaced the fired Terry Murray.

The Kings were playing their third game in four nights. The Canucks had been stewing at home for 48 hours, upset after their tepid loss to Anaheim on Sunday. The Canucks had a first-period goal differential of plus-24, while the Kings were minus-13. If the Kings could somehow get some momentum early, and take the lead into the first intermission, they had a puncher’s chance. That’s exactly what happened.

The mood was decidedly less positive in the home locker room, even after salvaging a point. For that the Canucks can thank Luongo, whose 39 saves included stopping seven odd-man rushes and a breakaway -- by coach Alain Vigneault's count -- most of them in the first eight minutes of the game.

The Vancouver Canucks want their first periods back. You know, the 20 minutes they used to own. The Canucks have steamrolled teams for much of this season in the opening period, outscoring the opposition 51-28. But like the Anaheim Ducks did on Sunday night, the Los Angeles Kings took the game to the Canucks in the first period en route to a 3-2 shootout victory at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night.

All the Canucks were missing was syrup as they got pancaked in the first period. If you were looking for emotion, focus, competent breakouts, and ultimately a little redemption after Sunday’s no-show against the Anaheim Ducks, you saw none of it. Not early, anyway.

“I think you’re only as good as your last game, and we certainly knew we needed to come back with a little bit of snarl. We lost in Edmonton, and you need to have that mentality that we lost the last game, so we’ve got to come out and push. So we certainly had the start we wanted. We got the first goal. We played with the lead and, as I said before, we felt we were due in the shootout, so we finally got one there.’’ – Justin Williams, on the good first period.

“That’s why we can put that pressure, I think, in the first period, because we play four lines and six D. Three in four nights is sometimes tough, but when you spread the ice time out, and you don’t have a lot of players playing over 20 minutes, I think it obviously allows you to be more fresh, especially late in the third period and in overtime.’’ – Mike Richards, on rolling four lines with success.

"Two points here gives us a great road trip," said Quick, who made 32 saves. "Five out of six isn't easy to do coming up here to the Northwest, so we're happy with what we did and looking forward to getting back home and playing some home games." – Jonathan Quick, on the success of their concluded Western Canadian road trip.

“Pretty much I had just stuck with they had had success with before. In our last two or three, the bottom line is that success in shootouts is winning it. Willy [Justin Williams] has been hot. Johnny [Jack Johnson] is a guy who, I think he’s only had one, but he scored before. Mike is a clutch guy.’’- Darryl Sutter, on changing the shootout lineup.

"I have never seen that (move) before. He came in quick, he slowed down and snapped it quick high glove. That was a pretty good play. If anything, I would have liked to make a better play on the first one (by Williams)." – Roberto Luongo, on Richards' shootout winner.