Anze Kopitar leads Los Angeles Kings to 2-1 win over Calgary Flames
Anze Kopitar lit the lamp in the shootout, as the Los Angeles Kings held on for a narrow 2-1 victory against the Calgary Flames, at Staples Centre on Monday night.
Jarret Stoll also notched a goal for Los Angeles, who halted a two-game slide and moved into fifth place in the Eastern Conference with 88 points. Jonathan Quick was solid between the pipes and finished the game with 27 saves.
Los Angeles Head Coach Terry Murray said after the game, "That was intense, very playoff-like, and a lot of good things on both sides. It was a fun game to play and a fun game to coach."
Olli Jokinen provided the lone offence for Calgary, who have dropped five of their last six games and have 85 points for the final playoff spot. Miikka Kiprusoff played very well but came up just short in the loss, turning away 26 shots
Flames Head Coach Brent Sutter remained upbeat despite the loss. He said, "It was a hard-fought game, it was like a game seven playoffs, you can't ask for anymore than that. Obviously it's important that we try to get two points, but the effort was there,
we did a lot of really good things here tonight, and we come up a little bit short."
Quick made 14 saves and Kiprusoff stopped 15 shots to keep the first two periods of the game goalless.
The Kings got the scoring started to take a 1-0 lead with six minutes left in the final frame. The goal came when Brad Richardson ripped a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that was saved, but Stoll grabbed the rebound at the right side and buried
it home.
However, the Flames pulled the game even at 1-1 just 65 seconds later, when Jokinen rushed in alone on a breakaway and fired a backhander through Quick’s pads for his 16th goal of the season to send the game into overtime.
Los Angeles turned aside six Flames’ power plays to extend their penalty kill streak to 35, including one in the final one minute of overtime after a penalty for too many men on the ice.
Overtime remained scoreless, and then the shootout started in which Kiprusoff stopped Michal Handzus’s shot in the first round. Alex Tanguay then put Calgary ahead, but Stoll tied the game again in the third round.
After Rene Bourque missed the goal post in the fourth round, Kopitar sealed the win at 2-1 when he swept the puck between Kiprusoff's legs. Curtis Glencross was the last hope for Flames, but his shot went wide of the net.
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