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.
Three goals in third not enough for Kings
The Kings come out aggressive to try and get another goal on Kiprusoff. And their hard work pays off, as Brad Stuart shoots on net through traffic and past Kipper to make it 3-2.
The Kings get their fifth power play with a lot of momentum on their side. But the top line isn't out there to start it off. Visnovsky hits it so hard that the rebound winds up on Frolov's stick, who tries to shoot it, but it gets deflected to Nagy, who knocks in his ninth goal of the season. He has been on fire the last seven games: he has eleven points, including his hat trick against the Hawks.
The Kings get a power play, when Sarich smacks Calder in the face with his stick, as L.A. takes to the ice for a double minor. Calder is shown getting stitches on the bench, which makes me wince. I'm sorry, but if I'm getting stitches, I want to be underground and away from anyone who would hear me scream like a schoolgirl.
The Kings get a goal, with a two-man advantage, when Blake shoots it on goal. Calder whacks at it, and the puck sneaks behind Kiprusoff, where Kopitar picks it up and puts the Kings up for the first time on the evening. Regehr checks Kopitar into the crossbar, but Anze shrugs it off. And to make things better, they still have the two-man advantage.
But to make things worse, Brown is reportedly not going to return to the game, after ramming into the board with his shoulder chasing a puck. Brown's willingness to muck it up in the corners has its disadvantages, and that's one of them. Not the first time he loses some ice time due to his shoulder.
Then the Kings start getting sloppy. Frolov gets a penalty, and Iginla finds Huselius in front of LaBarbera to tie it up at 4-4. Then Willsie gets two for tripping, and Langkow pops in a puck to put the Flames back up by one. It's Langkow's second of the game, and the Kings look like they might be spent.
Brown is now back out there, so reports of his demises have been exaggerated. (Way to go, Patrick O'Neal.) Brown has become the team's gritty goal-scoring leader, and to have him and Cammalleri out there may prompt a death knell for the Kings.
The Kings pull LaBarbera with less than two minutes to go, and the Kings fail to recapture the intensity earlier into the period. Huselius steals the puck from a reeling Visnovsky and pops it in to give the Flames their two-goal lead back.
It was exciting to see the Kings come out and score three goals in the third period, but it's frustrating to see the game slip away in such a fashion. The Flames were on the ropes, but, in typical Hollywood fashion, battled back against the odds to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
Another maddening fact: the Kings outshoot the Flames, 14-4, in the third. But they score on three out of four shots for the victory. Had the Kings been able to lock up the Flames in the first, and not miss some defensive assignments, we may have taken them to overtime or even skate out of Staples with a hard-fought win.
Hopefully Brown isn't too dinged up after this game, because that would have serious reprecussions later on.
Final score: Flames 6, Kings 3
