The Kings hope to continue their winning ways tonight against the Edmonton Oilers. The drive for .500 will occur tonight at Staples, where the Kings are 3-3 at home. Jason LaBarbara gets the nod once again in goal for the Kings, who has been very impressive in goal since coming in relief for Aubin back on Oct. 18. He has a 2.26 GGA, which is in the top ten for the NHL.

The DAM line starts off the game, and early in the first, the Kings put some immediate pressure, cycling through the players, and getting every player involved. They looked focused.

Play is stopped, as the refs confer about a possible lineup goof-up by the Oilers. But after five minutes play is started once again. Curious, I have never witnessed a problem like that. If the Oilers were found to have an ineligible player, he would have to leave the game and not come in.

The Kings got a power play, when Raffi Torres gets called for interference. Coming into the game tonight, the Kings are ranked third in the NHL on the power play. They are second in power play goals, behind Montreal. Visnovsky is out on defense with Rob Blake, Johnson with Modry, and Preissing with Stuart.

The penalty is over and O'Sullivan takes to the ice, this time with Willsie and Armstrong. O'Sullivan is still wearing his protective visor to ensure he doesn't lose those teeth. I'm convinced it has made him fearless, because he's just skating with reckless abondon.

John Zeiler gets called for slashing, and the Kings go down a man. Handzus and O'Sullivan play most of the PK, and are, as usual, effective. Frolov, Cammalleri and Armstrong get another shift together after the penalty is killed, but look out of sync.

Patrick O'Sullivan draws a penalty when Marc-Antoine Pouliot trips him, and Jack Johnson holds onto the puck behind the goal to allow the Kings to change up to their PP line, then follows LaBarbera as he skates off to get the extra attacker. Kopitar takes the puck at mid-ice and skates in with speed, drawing defenders to him After Kopitar skates far enough, Johnson comes flying into the crease. He receives a quick pass from Kopitar, and tries to jam it in, but Roloson touches the puck, and play is whistled dead. You always have instances where the goalie skates off for the extra attacker, but rarely do you see a bang-bang play like that, when a good shot is registered.

The DAM line is, for once, outplayed by the PP unit of Calder, Frolov and Nagy, who get several decent looks, including a Calder pass, which somehow found its way through two diving defenders and within spitting distance of the crease, but is unable to find a charging Nagy stick, who misses the golden chance.

Pouliot gets out of the box, and gets the puck and skates in unhindered on LaBarbera. Jason gets a great look at it, and is able to halt Pouliot's wrister. The defense should have realized when Pouliot was coming out, because that was close. But thanks to LaBarbera, the game is still scoreless.

The Oilers get a power play, when Dustin Penner draws a holding call from Handzus. And Jarret Stoll gets a goal, when he smacks a slapshot from the left side. O'Sullivan tried to clear it, but Ales Hemsky intercepted it, and fed Stoll a nice pass to put the Oilers up, 1-0.

The Oilers now have momentum, as the speedy team keeps pressing. Compared to the Dallas game, this game is like it's on fast-forward.

Faceoff deep in Los Angeles terrority, the Oilers win the drop, but the pass back to former King Denis Grebeshkov is tipped away by Patrick O'Sullivan, who skates in and puts one past Roloson, unassisted, to tie the game. A great shot, which hit the goalie, trickled in for O'Sullivan's second goal of the year.

The Kings had 11 shots in the first, and looks to have a slight edge in momentum, going into the locker room on O'Sullivan's goal. The Kings had two chances on the power play, but came up empty. They also had two penalties that period, allowing one goal. They have killed 18 out of their last 21 penalties, which is a nice improvement from earlier in the season. The one thing that strikes me is the Oilers outhit the Kings, 8-2. The Kings may be a speedy team, but are also known as a good-hitting team, with Blake, Brown and Johnson. But against a seemingly faster team, the Kings have let the hits go on the wayside in the first. We'll see how that pans out laster in the game, when the players get more tired.

First period: Kings 1, Oilers 1

The Oilers have come out swinging in the first, putting pressure on LaBarbera early. But fatre a few shifts, the team go back to that wide-open game, with lots of skating and scoring chances.

The thing that I notice is when the Oilers have the puck, the Kings immediately skates back and skates back and plays defensively, a far cry from last season when players would sort of hover around on D. Every line has a very good defensive forward on it, some have two. It's something that doesn't receive a lot of attention, but it's apparent once you notice it.

Johnson tees up a huge shot from the point, but the puck hits a defender's stick, which slows down considerably. Expecting a laser beam, Roloson is stuck in mid-air and is able to snap it out of the air. In regular speed, all you can see if Roloson jumping out and hanging, Matrix-style, waiting for the puck to get to him.

It's fun to see players try to figure out Kopitar when they play him. Some give him too much leeway, others play him super-tight. Anze is so adept at changing his game, it keeps the other team off-balance. he plays well on defense, he's got good ice vision, and he can get his hands dirty and get a little physical. It sure is a treat to see this kid evolve for the Kings, especially with young linemmates like Cammalleri and Brown, a line that hopefully is around for a long time.

The Kings look to get another shot at a power play, when Pouliot is called again for tripping. But L.A. gets a bench minor for too many men on the ice. Not too sure how that happened, but the result is a four-on-four. And on the ice is Nagy and Frolov, with Johnson and Modry. With more open-ice, it'll be interesting to see how this lineup goes.

Frolov battles for the puck behind the net, and it squirts out to Tom Gilbert, who is immediately checked by Nagy. Nagy picks up the puck and skates back toward Roloson, flipping a backhand past him for his second goal in three games. If Nagy can find his scoring touch, the Kings will be a very dangerous team.

Even with the goal, the teams are skating four man a piece, until Blake gets whistled for hooking. So now the Kings are down another man. But the Kings are able to kill the 4-on-3 and then the 5-on-4. LaBarbera is able to keep the puck after several real good pushes by Edmonton.

Kopitar takes the puck after winning the faceoff from Visnovsky behind the Kings net, skates through two Oiler defenders and goes down low, throwing the puck toward the net with a backhand, in hopes of getting a rebound for either Brown or Cammalleri. But the puck goes in after bouncing off the side of the net. It hits Roloson's skate and underneath him for his fifth goal. Visnovsky gets the only assist for the Kings. The Kings have had three goals and one assist tonight, which is pretty remarkable.

The Kings continue the fire the puck at Roloson, with 11 shots again. Only this time, the Kings come away with two goals. LaBarbera is having another great game, getting help from his forwards and defenseman.

Second period: Kings 3, Oilers 1

For such a speedy team, I'm surprised to learn that the Oilers have the worst power play in the entire league. They only have three PP goals, including the one from Stoll tonight. Meanwhile, the Kings have 14.

The Kings are playing with a sizable lead, so the period is flying past. LaBarbera comes up huge, making several big stops for Los Angeles, when they can't, for the life of them, clear the puck.

It's interesting to note that Jason has two portraits on his helmet, including one of Hollywood Hogan, who co-founded the New World Order when he was wrestling at World Championship Wrestling. It's fitting that the Kings have their own version of the nWo, with key players from Slovakia, Russia, Slovenia, Canada and the U.S.

Johnson has opened up his shooting from the point more. He has slowly picking his spots to unload his cannon this season, and tonight, he has fired three hard shots from the blueline. As it's pointed out everywhere, Johnson is slowing signs of improvement with every game. So unless he drops off in production, I'm not bringing it up again.

Dustin Brown hammers Dick Tarnstrom to the boards behind LaBarbera, and the crowd roars.

Calder gets the puck and skates in with O'Sullivan. Patrick slaps his stick down, and Calder whistles a pass through a defender, but the puck hits Roloson. O'Sullivan does get the rebound, and while skating behind the red line, flicks a backhard shot toward a wide-open net, catching Roloson unaware, for his second goal of the game. It was a beautiful shot for Patrick, who had the presense of mind to try to get the puck back in front of the net for either Calder or Willsie to jump on it. It's a helluva goal, and if you don't believe me, check it put:

The Kings are now tied with Dallas for the lead in the Pacific division. They are the best scoring club in the West, with 39 goals. Dallas is second with 28. LaBarbera has four wins in a row, and has made 117 out of 121 saves over the past five games. And he is rewarded, for the third straight game, with the first star of the game.

Final score: Kings 4, Oilers 1