Matt Murray has been a Kings fan since the late '80s, when Wayne Gretzky grabbed headlines by defecting to the West Coast. Since then, he has been a card-carrying bandwagon member as the club soared in popularity with their sole Stanley Cup appearance to their position near the bottom of the Pacific. But things are looking brighter, as he is anxious to witness the rise of the new Kings.
'Canes are able to halt Kings' point streak
Los Angeles has been disappointing this season so far. But they are currently enjoying their best streak, as they have registered at least a point in the last five games. Their most impressive win came last game against the league's best team, the Nashville Predators. Anze Kopitar still maintains a firm grasp on the second spot in rookie scoring, and Michael Cammalleri has been en feugo in the past 8 games, registering at least a point in each contest. The Kings only dress 11 forwards tonight, so Marc Crawford will get to play Mad Scientist tonight, mixing up the lines.
The Kings come into tonight's matchup with the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes with the third best road power play percentage. They get a chance to put some PP shots on goalie Cam Ward early when Jaime Lundmark gets cracked in the face by Justin Williams. But the resulting power play comes up short. Lundmark returned later in the period.
Lubomir Visnovsky gets whistled for hooking Eric Staal, and the Canes go on the power play. Dustin Brown gets a great short-handed chance, as he breaks away with the puck. He had the goalie beat, but decided to go to his backhand and the puck was poked away. A little later, Tom Konstopolous stands up and knocks All-Star Eric Staal down to the ice, causing Staal to skate over to the bench. Rob Blake is hitting everything he sees, but he is soon dead tired and can't get off the ice when Carolina scores.
The Canes get on the board, when red-hot ray Whitney puts in a power play goal to make it 1-0 Carolina. Whitney now has 5 goals and five assists in the last five games. Rod Brind'Amour's assist to Whitney extends both their scoring streaks to five games.
Los Angeles is held to only four shots in the first period, which is not going to get it done. Sean Burke has been impressive, as usual, facing a barrage of shots.
First period: Hurricanes 1, Kings 0
Patrick O'Sullivan gets whistled for a hooking penalty on Justin Williams, and Kings fans hold their breath. L.A. has the third worst penalty kill in the league. And the canes come out firing. L.A. does kill it, but then coach Crawford gets whistled for being abusive to the referees. Aparently, he has had enough with the extracurricular activities of some of the Hurricanes players. The Kings happen to kill that penalty too.
Alexander Frolov ties the game when he scores on the power play with a redirection of a Brent Sopel shot. Frolov now has 30 goals this season, well on his way for a career year. The goal was also assisted by Derek Armstrong.
But the Canes comes back to take the lead, when Scott Walker finally scores after skating around Raleigh, to make it 2-1. David Tanabe gets his second assist of the game, and Josef Vasicek tacks one on.
Los Angeles gets another power play chance, when Eric Staal starts hooking everything wearing a white jersey. Los Angeles has had 3 power plays so far in this game, but only 2 shots. As the power play unfolds, Carolina hustles and outworks the Kings, and only surrender two real good opportunities.
So far the Kings have only 10 shots to Carolina's 24, but the score is still closer than you would expect. Once again, the solid play by veteran goaltender Burke is keeping the Kings in this game.
Second period: Hurricanes 2, Kings 1
Jim Fox notes that O'Sullivan was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and his grandfather was able to procure a box to watch him play. Maybe that's why he's playing a little nervous tonight, seeing that this would be the first time he's played so close to his old home.
The third period finds Los Angeles coming out firing. They get two more power play opportunities, but come up short. They do wind up outshooting Carolina, 12-5, but Carolina holds on to nab the victory. And the road trip comes to a close, with the Kings lose three out of five games on the East Coast swing. However, as noted earlier, two of those losses were overtime losses. The team played really well on this road trip, and hope to match up better this Saturday when they host crosstown rival Anaheim.
Third period: Hurricanes 2, Kings 1
