Simon Gagne scores twice as Los Angeles Kings destroy St. Louis Blues 5-0 in home opener -NHL Update
Los Angeles played their first game of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season at home and showed why their known as the Kings by completely shutting down the St. Louis Blues offence while destroying their defence, 5-0, at the sold-out
Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, United States.
A crowd of over 18,000 came out to support their team and witness their first home game of the new season and the Kings certainly did not disappoint.
Simon Gagne picked up three points (2 goals, 1 assist) in the process for the highest collection in the end. Los Angeles goalie, Jonathan Quick, also shined by saving all 27 shots on his net by the visiting team.
"It shows what type of team we are", Gagne said, after Tuesday night’s contest. "It's good to get the first one, and get a lot of goals for our fans. Overall we played a good game as a team".
Simon Gagne opened the scoring at the 7:20 mark of the first period, while LA managed to kill of their initial penalty of the match as well 25 seconds later.
Jarret Stoll extended the lead a little over midway through the second while Dustin Brown made his first of the season with a 5-on-3 man advantage with St. Louis playing without Chris Stewart and Alex Pietrangelo for minor penalties within a minute of each
other.
Kings high flying shooter, Anze Kopitar, scored his fourth of the season 23 seconds into the third, throwing the St. Louis morale out of the stadium, followed by the final goal by Gagne six minutes later, and taking the match out of the Blues hand for sure.
"After the long road trip, sometimes it gets too long and you have trouble focusing", Kopitar said. "I thought guys battled through it well. When you get off to a nice start like that, it builds up your confidence".
Kings play their next game at the Jobing.com arena against Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday, while Blues can rest for a few days as they face Carolina Hurricanes on Friday. It will certainly be interesting to see how both teams continue on playing in the season.
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