Feb 29, 2000   1 Point Better Than None

Three stars:  1st) Felix Potvin  2nd) Ziggy  3rd) Steph

The Kings were outshot 13-6 in the first period, but managed to end the period in a 1-1 tie.  That was it for scoring, and if the Kings had played a full 60 minutes they might have actually walked away with a win.  First period was really exciting with Blakey hipchecking any black jersey around him, and Steph standing on his head to keep the puck out of his space.  Ziggy scored first when he took a pass from Luc, wristed a shot past Potvin from the lower edge of the faceoff circle at 1:24. Luc's assist extended his points streak to a career-best 14 games.  "Normally I'm pretty tough to please, but I'm also one of those people that takes a look at stats and history and I know the Kings traditionally have come off the road and not played well in the first game back, so I have to say I'm very pleased," King Coach Andy Murray said.   The Kings had a chance to go 2-0 late in the first period with a two-man advantage for 34 seconds, but could get anything past Potvin.  Instead, Vancouver used the momentum to get a goal from Jason Strudwick with less than a minute left in the first.  The Kings' power play, which has been pretty good  most of the season, failed again in the second period when it didn't convert a five-on-three advantage that lasted 66 seconds.  Andy sent out four forwards and Blakey for that five-on-three but the Kings couldn't score.  Despite their mediocre play for two periods, the Kings are holding a solid 6th place playoff spot.   "This was a great game. The guys played unbelievable in front of me," Fiset said. "The [defense] tonight, I think they played a perfect game. I saw every shot and they cleared the rebounds. Felix played an unbelievable game. If he was not hot, we win the game for sure."   Vancouver had two shots in ovetime, the Kings had none.

Feb 26, 2000   OD Scores! ... Wrong Net!

After seven games in eleven days, the Kings looked like a tired team.  They went into San Jose hoping to end the longest road trip of the season 5-2, but ran into Owen Nolan and Don Koharski, and lost to the Sharks 6-3.  They were also without Ziggy (back spasms) and Gary (sprained neck).  Nolan has been a thorn in the Kings side all season, and it appeared that Kohorski had things other than the game on his mind.  It seemed the Kings played shorthanded all evening, and just couldn't stop Nolan who scored two goals for the Sharks .... whos fans thought he had a hat trick when OD kicked the puck into our net with less than a minute left in the second.  The goal was credited to Mike Ricci.  San Jose started the scoring with a power play goal by Todd Harvey, and Mo countered in the second on the power play.  Stumpy put the Kings ahead 2-1, but less than three minutes later Nolan tied the game, and the Sharks just kept putting them in.  Nolan scored his second of the game on the power play at 9:32 of the second period and with less than a minute left, OD tried to kick the puck away, but it went in past Jamie.  "I had broken my stick in the corner, and I was trying to keep Nolan away," he said. "I was trying to kick the puck behind the goal." Although the Sharks fans threw hats all over the ice, the goal was credited to Mike Ricci.   "I started laughing because I knew 'Reech' scored," said Nolan. "I saw the caps coming down. A lot of fans lost their hats for no reason."  Too bad.  The Kings had a five-on-three advantage but couldn't capitalize.  "That was key," said Kings' defenseman Rob Blake. "They had a five-on-three (when Jason Blake and Modry were off the ice) and scored near the end of the second penalty. We had a five-on-three and couldn't score.  "Shields came up huge."  Glen finally got one in but it was too little .. too late.  The Kings play the next seven games at home, and have a chance to move into 5th.

Stumpy scored two goals and the Kings beat the Canucks 5-2.  The first goal of the game came from Len Barrie.  Bob Corkum fed Len on the left wing and he shot it from about 40 feet. The puck hit goalie Felix Potvin's stick before settling in the cage for a 1-0 lead.  Then, with only five seconds to play in the period, Craig Johnson beat the Canucks' Murray Baron to a rebound of Jason Blake's shot and the Kings were ahead 2-0.  Stumpy's first goal came 23 seconds into the second period and gave the Kings a 3-0 lead. Luc's shot hit the crossbar and the right goalpost before Stumpel poked it past Potvin.  Three minutes later Stumpy scored his second of the night from a pass by Matty Norstrom, who assisted on both goals by Stumpy.  It was looking like Steph would get his second shutout of the season, but Vancouver's Ed Jovanovski scored at 14:19 of the third period; and Klatt added a power-play goal 40 seconds later, but Glen got a shorthanded empty-net goal with 37 seconds left to give the Kings a 5-2 win.

Feb 23, 2000   Kings Extinguish Flames

Sometimes you need a lift, a spark, something to get you going.  Well the Kings needed something to get them going against the Flames.  It worked, but what was it?  They were down 2-0 ten minutes into the first period on goals by Jerome Iginla and Jeff Shantz.  Andy Murray called a timeout.  "I just told them we had 50 minutes left and how we played could determine our season," he said.  The Kings outshot the Flames 12-9 in that time, but couldn't get anything past Brathwaite.  So the first period ended with the Kings down 2-0.  Donald started the scoring in the second period, which eventually gave the Kings a 7-2 win.  He was back on the second line, where he is most comfortable.  He was also at the right place at the right time, and scored in front of the crease fighting off Calgary defenseman Cale Hulse.  Blakey's shot was rejected and picked up by Glen who made a soft pass to Donald.  "I didn't feel [Hulse]," said Audette, who later added two assists.  "All I did was see the puck.  It was an ugly goal.  "Murray's pep talk or the fact that Donald was back where he felt he belonged?  Who knows.  It worked.  It was the spark the Kings needed to get going.  From there it was all Kings who pelted the Flames with 7 unanswered goals. It was Aki's turn next.  After being scratched several times this season, and not stopping Iginla in the first, he scored his second of the season when he pinched in from the right point and flipped the puck into the right corner of the net.  "That meant so much to me," Berg said. "It just gave me so much confidence. The last few days haven't been easy, but I knew if I kept my head up good things would happen."  They did, and the game was tied at the end of second, and the shots were in favor of the Kings 31-18.  Ziggy scored the game winner 6:33 into the third period when his one-timer from the right faceoff circle caromed off a Flames player's chest.  As if that wasn't enough spark, Mini-Me, Jere, and Blakey all scored on the power play.  By games end, the Kings had outshot the Flames 48-26.

The Kings lost 6-3 to Edmonton on a hat trick by Georges Laraque, his first.  The Kings will have to put this loss behind them when they play Calgary on Wednesday.  If they don't step it up, they have little chance of winning.  They didn't hit, couldn't pass, stayed clear of the Oilers net, and didn't clear their own net!
Laraque scored at 7:34 of the first period when he put a rebound of Jim Dowd's shot past Steph.  The Kings were outshot 10-0 the first nine minutes of the game.  Luc score in the second period when his shot deflected off Salo into the net.  He is now tied with Michel Goulet with 548 goals, 17th all time.  Laraque came back and scored his second of the night when he deflected Roman Hamrlik's slap shot from the faceoff circle past Steph, giving the Oilers a 2-1 lead.  Moreau put the Oilers up 3-1 at 18:59 of the second when he scored from the slot on a power play.  It was a bad penalty call by Mcgeough.  CJ scored by beating Salo at the goal mouth following a scramble around the net at 6:01 of the third.  Weight scored on a rebound at 16:26 of the period, and Gary's slap shot from the point beat Salo, and the Kings were down by one goal.  With Steph out of the for an extra attacker, Janne Niinimaa put the puck into the empty net at 19:31.  Laraque completed the hat trick when he took a pass from Boyd Devereaux and deked Steph with 16 seconds remaining in the game.

Tsyppy's trade came back to haunt us in Buffalo's 4-1 win.  He scored the game-winner and had two assists.  The Kings dominated the first 10 minutes, but it was all Sabres after that.
Ziggy scored very early in the first period, but that was all the Kings could get past Hasek.  Buffalo scored when Jamie made a bad judgement to play the puck behind the net.  He got caught, and Tsyppy got the puck to Peca in front of the net.  Jamie couldn't get set in the net before Peca shot and put it past him.  Tsyppy gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead in the second period. His game-winning goal came midway through the second period when he took a pass from Pecca in the left faceoff circle and fired a shot that hit the left goalpost and Storr's backside before trickling in.  "If there was anybody who had to beat us tonight, I'm glad it was him," Murray said. "He's a great guy."
"We've had a lot of chances in the last 10 games and scored one goal," Tsyplakov said. "It was nice tonight. Hopefully, we could continue it."  It was Peca again in the third period when he skated wide from behind the net and back-handed a shot through traffic from the slot. "I think I misplayed the first one," Storr said. "The third one I couldn't even see. It just found a hole."  With Jamie pulled for the extra attacker, Satan scored into the empty net.
The Kings winning streak was stopped at five.

When your goaltending is superb, you win games.  And it was outstanding against the Red Wings.  Steph stopped 33 of 35 shots to help the Kings win over Detroit 3-2.  "I was nervous at the beginning because it was my first start in five games, but after that I was OK," Fiset said. "There weren't many chances because the guys played well in front of me. We're playing with a lot of condfidence now. We know we can beat any team in the league right now when we're playing well." Momentum went back and forth all night, but in the end the Kings prevailed and are two for two on this road trip.
Detroit took the lead with a goal by Yzerman, but from then on it was all Kings.  First period ended 1-0 Detroit, but Lappy tied it 4:01 into the second period when he took Donald's pass off the left boards, fought off Detroit's Tomas Holmstrom and put a backhander past Osgood before he ended up in the net.  Less than a minute later, Glen took a pass from Bryan, raced in alone on Osgood and beat the him to put the Kings ahead.  Koslov tied the game midway through the second, and it stayed tied through the second period.  Steph's biggest save came in the second period when he stopped a breakaway by Steve Yzerman, shortly after Detroit had tied the game.  "I saw him coming and I was nervous," Fiset said of the sight of Yzerman with the puck on his stick. "With Steve Yzerman, you have to know that he's going to make a move and you can't be too aggressive. On that one, he was going through my legs, and I closed them. "Next time maybe he makes a different move and he scores."  It lifted the Kings.  "It was huge," Robitaille said. "We feed off the goaltending, and it's been great lately, both Steph and Jamie Storr."  Luc got the game winner at 1:44 of the third period on a bad-angle wrist shot from the left side.  "That was definitely a playoff-type game," said Robitaille.  "It was a level above usual."
"It's a great feeling to come in here and beat a team that is on a roll," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "People are going to think of the L.A. Kings in different terms. We want to get into the playoffs. Maybe this time people won't be licking their chops to play us. Before, they'd see the L.A. Kings coming and start looking to the second round of the playoffs."

The Kings started their seven game road trip with a bang.  They left Chicago with a 4-1 win, and travel on to Detroit.  "We wanted to start it out on the right foot because all the games in our conference are big," Robitaille added.  And that they did.  Bryan started the scoring with less than 2 minutes left in the first periodwhen he took a pass from Glen and beat Steve Passmore with a quick slap shot from the left hashmark.  "I was glad for Bryan Smolinski's goal after all that," King Coach Andy Murray said.  "We took a look at the scoring sheet between periods and we had something like 11-1 [advantage] in scoring chances."  It became 2-0 in the second period when Luc took a pass from Ziggy and beat Passmore on a breakaway with a man advantage.  "They were very aggressive on the penalty kill," Robitaille said. "They were cheating a little bit, and I was just hoping we could take advantage."  Blakey took a pass from Donald at the blue line, skated in and scored from the face-off circle to make it 3-0.  Tony Amonte scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway, but that was it for Chicago.  Glen scored into an empty net with 1:16 to play.  "The only thing I know is that we can't go 0-7 on the trip," Andy Murray said. "Now we go to Detroit and hope we won't go 1-6."
The Kings hace 64 points, giving them sixth place with 27wins.  The Sharks have 25 victories and 64 points, but the Kings have five games in hand.

Now the Kings know how to win a game in overtime. In 10 previous overtimes, they have 3 losses and 7 ties.  But OD gave the Kings their first 4-3 overtime win against the Flames, and it was as wild and flukey as it gets.  As he took a shot off a pass from Ziggy his stick broke, sending the puck wide of the net.  But Flames Clark Wilm was in the path of the stray puck.  The puck deflected off Wilm's skate right into the net past Brathwaite.  Od was as surprised as Brathwaite and the 14,000 fans.
Ziggy opened the scoring at 1:51 of the first when Stumpy fired the puck at Luc, who sent it to Ziggy, who redirected it into an open net.  It became 2-0 when Ziggy passed to Stumpy, who sent it under a stick to  Luc, who also had an open net.  That goal earned Luc a tie with Maurice Richard for 18th all time.  The Kings defense broke down and Jarome Iginla scored to cut things to 2-1.  Luc's only goal in the second period sent him past Richard.  Blakey shot the puck, it hit the back boards and shot out where Luc picked it up and shot past Brathwaite.  It was 3-1 and looked like the Kings had the game well in hand when the Flames came back with two quick goals 52 seconds apart by Housley and Iginla to tie the game.  But in overtime, OD was the hero.  Shots on goal were 23 for the Flames - 43 for the Kings.
The win sent the Kings to 6th place.  The Kings now go on a 7 game road trip beginning in Chicago.

The streak is over.  The last time the Kings beat the Stars,  Barry Melrose was their coach. After going winless for 22 games against the Stars, the Kings finally found a way to beat them in a 3-2 final.  Those of us who were around for the last win against this team, knew how important a game it was.  It was a tough battle, and a nail-bitter towards the end, but crashing the net (something the Kings haven't done) paid off.
 Blakey, ended up in the net after being tripped by Darryl Sydor.  Everybody was crashing the net, and Stumpy was hooked to the ice by the Brenden Morrow, but got the puck to Luc, who shot the puck past Ed Belfour who was tangled with Blakey, all with less than a second to go in the second period. The goal was reviewed, and deemed a goal.   "I think I was the only one standing," Robitaille said.  Goals are often labeled as 'pretty' or 'ugly'.  This one was labeled an ugly goal, but I was there, and that was the prettiest goal I've seen in a very LONG time ....
Stumpy opened the scoring one second after the Kings killed off a two man disadvantage.  Stumpy intercepted a Sylvain Cote pass and worked a give-and-go with Ziggy a 1-0 lead.
Galley made it 2-0 with just over five minutes left in the first by blasting a shot from the slot that bounced off the left goalpost and past Belfour.
"The streak was more in our heads than acutally being able to win against Dallas over the years," Storr said. "Today we just played harder and pulled together. The big thing is the two points, whether it's against the Dallas Stars or anybody."
Aaron Gavey scored for Dallas in the second period, and Matvichuk's goal with under 14 minutes left was a result of Storr scrambling to get back into position.  Gavey sent the puck to Matvichuk, who had a wide open net.  "I had to apologize to Sean O'Donnell," said Storr, somewhat abashed at the play and its ramifications.  "I thought he was going to hit me with his stick."
"You could tell by the excitement of the fans it meant quite a lot to them," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "It's my first year here, so I've only lost to Dallas this year. Our fans, some of the players that have been in the organization for a while and the management have endured quite a bit to get a win."

After a disasterous night against the ducks, the Kings redeemed themselves with five unanswered goals to beat the Coyotes 5-2.  Phoenix scored the first two goals by Keith Carney and Rick Tocchet, but the Kings came back with a goal by Ziggy on the power play who was at the right side of the net and one-timed Stumpy's cross-ice pass.  And then Stumpy scored with two minutes left in the first period.  Blakey scored the game winner, a power play goal with 25 seconds left in the second period.  Lucky's assist, second of the game moved him past Darryl Sittler into 36th place on the NHL's career-scoring list. He has 1,122 career points, one more than Sittler.  Bob Corkum, a former Coyote, scored in the third and Ziggy added another.  Jamie stopped 31 shots.
Now it's time to get ready for the Dallas Stars.

The Kings just don't seem to be able to absorb the idea of playing 60 minutes of hockey (all in the same game).  They played a marginal first period, stepped it up in the third, but failed to show up in the second.  This kind of continual play isn't going to get us a playoff spot in April.
The Kings and Ducks matched goals in the first period by Matt Cullen and Stumpy, but it was all Ducks in the second.  Four unanswered goals put the game away early, and gave the Ducks a 5-3 win over the Kings.  More importantly, we lost a much needed 4 points to keep our heads above water.  Somebody get the life preserver ... we're sinking!
Anaheim scored five times on its first 13 shots.  The Kings had a 11-5 advantage in shots in the first period, but the game was tied 1-1.  Rookie defenseman Vitaly Vishnevski scored in the second on a shot screened by Ted Donato and Galley.  Oleg Tverdovsky, Rucchin, and Kariya scored as the defense support in front of Steph turned into mistakes and misplays.
Our second line (why do we STILL call them our second line?) of Smolinski and Murray scored, but it was a little too late for the Kings to recover.
Dallas is coming into town on Friday.  I wonder if it's even worth the drive to LA.

The Kings started off a little slow in the first period, but turned up the heat in the second period, and ran away with a 6-3 win over the Wings.  Detroit drew first blood late in the first period with a short handed goal by Sergei Fedorov.  Ziggy tied it early in the second but less than three minutes later, it was Fedorov again.  Steph came out to poke the puck with his stick. He caught his leg and went down as it went into Fedorov and it bounced into the net.  From then on it was all Kings.  Stumpy picked up the puck at the blue line and wrist shot it into the Detroit net for a 2-2 tie. It was his fifth goal of the season.  "It was an important goal," Palffy said. "They had momentum, and we took it back."   Only 40 seconds later, the Kings took a 3-2 lead when Bryan Smolinski took a pass from Glen Murray and shoved the puck past Ozzie.  And in another 40 seconds it was 4-2 when Lucky took a pass from Palffy and slammed the puck five hole for his 542nd career goal.  He is just 2 goals behind Rocket Richard for 18th all time.  Just about half way through the third period, L A struck again.  Glen and Ziggy added two more goals, and the Kings go into the All Star break with back to back wins.  The first since November.

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