Kings goalie Mathieu Garon got the nod against the Coyotes, the team that he shut out earlier this season. He let in an early shot from Shane Doan. That became a harbinger of things to come. Going into the night, he led all goaltenders in the NHL in save percentage and goals against average.

Rookie phenom Anze Kopitar scored a power-play goal on a pretty assist from Blake to tie the game. It was the Kings' first shot of the game. Blake may have lost a step this season, but he showed on the power play that he is still effective in other ways.

The Kings won a draw and the rebound from Kostopoulos trickled in under CuJo, to go up 2-1. Last season, Curtis Joseph just owned the Kings. He was 5-1 against L.A. But he was yanked early in the first by coach Wayne Gretzky. The 'Yotes seemed to be a team in disarray. Kostopoulos has made the most of his minutes lately. He has 6 points in 10 games, and he's averaging only 8 minutes a game. He's been a pleasant surprise.

Even after CuJo got pulled, the Kings kept peppering the new Phoenix goaltender, David LeNeveu with shots. Altogether, the Kings outshot the Coyotes, 43-27. Derek Armstrong added a goal midway through the first to go up 3-1, and the Jobing.com arena was silent. Cammalleri had two assists on the night.

Two quick goals by Phoenix brought some life to the Jobing.com arena. The first from Enver Lisin was reviewed but allowed. The second from Georges Laraque was no question. Sopel was out of position, and Laraque knocked it past Garon. Garon has looked a little shaky, considering he's facing the worst team in the league.

The Kings got a penalty, and Crawford sent out Frolov and Kopitar on the penalty kill. Both of them have been working together on the PK recently, and they seem to work well on killing the penalty. Brown drew another penalty (he has been exceptional at that this season) and guess who was out on the power play? The kid Kopitar.

First period: Kings 3, Coyotes 3

After squandering an early power play, the Kings were unable to clear the zone, and former King Yanic Perreault scored to take a 4-3 lead. A power-play goal from Jovanovski made it 5-3, and Crawford decided to yank Garon. He just wasn't focused tonight. Maybe it was those horrible Coyotes jerseys. Maybe it was the annoying Coyote howl after the 5 goals he let in.

When Cloutier came in, it didn't get any better. A quick score by Perreault made it 6-3, and you could hear television sets all over Southern California flipping over to the UCLA game. Ladislav Nagy had three assists on the game.

This game has been good for everyone on Phoenix who has yet to score this season: Lisin, Perreault and Seidenberg tallied their first goals of 2006-07. It was Lisin's first career goal. So far, they've scored five straight.

Frolov scored the Kings' fourth goal, and was the only tally for the Kings in the second.

Second period: Coyotes 6, Kings 4

The teams settled down starting the third, almost to a crawl. Crawford started to double-shift Kopitar midway through the third. Anze has really settled into his role on the ice. During the Kings PP, Kopitar had several looks, but shot wide. Kopitar led all forwards with 22 minutes and had the most shots out of everyone.

L.A. started pressuring Phoenix, who started to look a little tired. The Coyotes played the Ducks last night, so the Kings were relentess in their attack of the obviously winded opponents. But in their excitement, L.A. was caught with too many men on the ice with less than five minutes to go in the third. L.A. killed the penalty, but it was all for naught.

Final Score: Coyotes 6, Kings 4