Los Angeles Kings rally to win home-opener
The Los Angeles Kings rallied in the third period to defeat the Atlanta Thrashers 3-1 on Tuesday. It was the Kings' first game on home ice this season after opening with two games on the
road.
A glitzy pre-game ceremony got things rocking in a sold-out Staples Centre, featuring former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash performing the U.S. National Anthem.
Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick, who stopped 32 shots for the victory, admitted that the ceremony may have added to the Kings' slow start.
"To walk the purple carpet and see all the fans, obviously there's a little nerves after that," Quick said. "But once you get going, you do the things you need to do. You had a feeling
in the third period that we were going to get one sooner or later, the way our forwards were going."
After a scoreless first period, the Thrashers opened the scoring when Chris Thorburn picked up his second goal of the season early in the second.
Thrashers goaltender Chris Mason was able to keep the Kings off the scoreboard through two periods, adding to the Kings' offensive troubles. The Kings only scored two goals in their first
two games on the road, and it looked like they were going to be snake-bitten once again after hitting several posts. However, things quickly changed in the third period.
Ryan Smyth was able to tie the game at 1-1 early in the third after whacking in a rebound from in close. Smyth then help set up Jarret Stoll just over two minutes later to give the Kings
a 2-1 lead. Smyth then capped-off his night by putting the game away by scoring into an empty net from centre ice with just 30 seconds remaining.
"We've got to make sure we answer and dig in deep every night, and this was a great way to start that," Smyth said. "Winning like that at home in our first game is huge for momentum, for
our fans, everything."
It was the Kings first home-opener win since 2006 as they improved to 2-1 on the season.
Thrashers goaltender Chris Mason stopped 32 shots in the loss and admitted that their young team is still getting used to each other.
"We're still new. I mean, the first game we all played together was the first game of the season," Mason said. "So we're all still trying to understand concepts and trying to work through
some things. Tonight is not the way that we want to play, but we're getting there."
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