Alexander Frolov is the team leader in goals so far (10 G) this season. Frolov is truly the King of the Castle, as eight of those ten goals came at home. Dan Cloutier is in goal, surprising after letting in three goals in a period of three minutes in the third period last game against the Flyers. And even though some of those goals weren't his fault, I thought maybe Garon would get a shot. Derek Armstrong is back in the lineup today. The Coyotes are tied for the worst power play in the NHL. Dustin Brown is among the league leaders in hits so far.
For the second game in a row, the Kings come out flat, allowing their opponents more shots to start the period. The fans of Staples Center are raining boos down upon Phoenix winger/fading talent Jeremy Roenick whenever he takes to the ice.
The Kings get their first power play opportunity when an elbow by Owen Nolan was caught by the refs. Frolov scored on the power play, his 11th of the season on a feed from Conroy. He is, as ESPN's Dan Patrick would say, en fuego. The Lov now has seven goals in the month of November.
First period: Kings 1, Coyotes 0
The Kings, outshot in the first period 13-9, come out swinging in the second. Phoenix's Mike Zigomanis gets called for hooking Sean Avery. Avery comes back and helps set up Rob Blake's power play goal to lift the Kings, 2-0.
The Kings got called for two many men on the ice, and the Coyotes go on the power play. But Alexander Frolov takes the puck and carries it in the zone, shooting past LeNeveu for a short-handed goal, to make it 3-0 Los Angeles. That's his third straight home game that he's scored two goals in a game. According to the Associated Press , Frolov is the first Kings player with three consecutive multi-goal games since March 1993, when Luc Robitaille had a hat trick against Calgary and followed that with two-goal efforts against Ottawa and Edmonton.
The Kings are two out of three on the power play today. LeNeveu gets the hook, and in comes CuJo.
Things get a little heated when a scrum breaks out late in the period. Who gets called for unsportsmanlike conduct? Why, Sean Avery, of course. However it's an off-setting penalty with Nick Boynton, so there's no real penalty to the team.
The Coyotes get on the board, when Georges Laraque goes five-hole from the top of the blue line, past Cloutier to make it, 3-1. Less than a minute later, Yanic Perreault flips a shot past Cloutier to make it, 3-2. And the Kings continue their unsettling trend of giving up goals in bunches. It is the tenth time this season the Kings have given up two goals in a period of two minutes or less.
Second period: Kings 3, Coyotes 2
For some reason, Blake doesn't come out for the third period. According to a sharp-eared listener to Kings Talk after the game, Kings radio announcer Nick Nickson announced that Blake had suffered a pulled groin, and that he should be available for the Kings next game against the Sharks on Wednesday.
Cowan connects with a knee-on-knee hit on Roenick, which ellicited a loud response from Staples. Roenick does a mid-air twirl, and goes sprawling across the ice. That should be good for some highlights. It could've been a lot worse.
Cloutier allows one craptastic goal, when Oleg Saprykin lofts a high puck right over Cloutier's shoulder to tie the game at 3-3. Cloutier didn't even bother to look for it, and the Staples Center crowd boos him.
However, the Kings get an opportunity on the power play, as Ed Jovanovski gets the whistle for holding Frolov. The Kings respond by putting four forwards and Lubomir Visnovsky. The result? Craig Conroy rockets a shot from the point past Joseph with a power play goal to give the Kings a 4-3 lead. Sean Avery and Lubo both have two assists in the game.
The Kings start leaving three guys back late in the game, to help Cloutier on defense. Jeff Cowan, playing in his first game back from injury, has played strong today. Anze Kopitar almost lit the lamp late in the third, just missing on a shot, but draws a penalty.
The Kings fail on the extra man advantage, and the Coyotes pull CuJo with a minute to go in the game. Gretzky calls a timeout to give the 'Yotes a chance to catch their breath.
But Frolov pokes a stick, knocking the puck to Kopitar to give the Kings a two-on-none. Kopitar could've scored, but instead passed it to Scott Thornton for an empty-netter. Kopitar has yet to score a goal at Staples Center.
Third period: Kings 5, Coyotes 3
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.
