Michal Handzus scored a short-handed goal early in the third period to put Los Angeles ahead and Ryan Smyth connected on a power play, leading the Kings to a 2-1 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

Jonathan Quick stopped 26 shots one day after he was selected for the U.S. Olympic team along with Los Angeles teammates Dustin Brown and Jack Johnson.

Quick kept the Kings in the game during a one-sided second period in which the Capitals outshot Los Angeles 13-2. He made two tough saves on Alex Ovechkin in less than a minute, flicking out his right leg at the last instant to thwart Ovechkin's tricky 25-foot wrist shot with 9 1/2 minutes left in the period, then stopping another wrist shot from point-blank range by the two-time MVP.

Defenseman Mike Green scored a power-play goal for the Capitals at 2:13 of the second.

Handzus picked up his first short-handed goal of the season and 16th of his career with 17:10 left while Smyth was serving a boarding penalty for slamming Shaone Morrisonn in the Washington zone. Brad Richardson passed the puck out from behind the net to Handzus, who swerved around rookie goalie Michal Neuvirth and flipped the puck over Green's right shoulder as he backed up Neuvirth in the crease.

The Capitals had a 5-on-3 power play for 53 seconds later in the third, after Johnson was sent off for cross-checking Brooks Laich and defenseman Sean O'Donnell got a delay-of-game penalty for shooting the puck over the glass. But the Southeast Division leaders came up empty.

The Kings, who lost four straight games by one-goal margins before beating Minnesota 5-2 on Thursday, had three power plays in the first period compared to none for Washington. They scored on the third one when Smyth jammed the puck past Neuvirth after Anze Kopitar's slap shot from the right point struck the skate of Capitals defenseman Tom Poti. Smyth's 11th goal came while John Erskine was serving an interference penalty for knocking down Richardson.

The Capitals, who entered with the league's second-best power-play percentage (23.6), got their first opportunity with the man advantage 26 seconds after the first intermission. They tied it with 13 seconds left on a penalty for rookie Scott Parse for tripping Green, who beat Quick to the stick side with a 35-foot slap shot for his 10th of the season and seventh in 13 games.

Neuvirth's first real test came midway through the first during the final seconds of the Kings' first power play, when he made a point-blank save against Alexander Frolov from close range and turned aside Handzus' backhander on the rebound.