Kings-Blues game story
I'll attach the Associated Press game story. Not much of importance in terms of notes and quotes, other than this from Marc Crawford, apparently in reference to the fact that the Blues weren't called for a penalty until the final two minutes of the game:
"It was very spirited. You knew it was going to be a tight game," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "And it was a very tight game. But they got the breaks from the officials tonight on the calls, and that ended up being the difference in the game. We had that power play right at the very end of the game. I thought that our guys battled hard tonight, and they had six good chances in the third period. Unfortunately, we couldn't solve their goalie in the third period."
The AP game story follows. Thanks to the graciousness of our sports editor, I'll be out at practice (noon start scheduled) tomorrow and will have a full report in the afternoon.
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ST. LOUIS (AP) _ It appeared to be a simple play.
It was also the one that Ryan Johnson and Jamal Mayers work on all the time that produced the winning goal for the Blues and helped St. Louis break out of a six-game losing streak.
Mayers received an outlet pass from defenseman Jay McKee at center ice, tipped the puck to Johnson, who was able to race in along the right side and score the only goal of the third period as the Blues rallied to beat the Kings 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Johnson's fifth goal of the season came as a result of breaking in with a head of speed, curling the puck around a sliding Anze Kopitar before beating Kings goalie Erik Ersberg with 6:54 remaining to help the Blues snap out of a 0-5-1 skid. They had just scored four goals in those six games.
"It was a great play by Jay and Jamal," Johnson said. "It's something we certainly work on in practice. Once I knew I was in with a ton of speed, I was almost just trying to slow myself down. Sometimes you get going so fast, it's tough to make a play on net. I just tried to look up, take a step and make a play to the net."
Johnson was able to slide the puck between Ersberg's pads before tumbling over the Kings netminder and crashing to the ice.
"Essentially, we're just trying to get the puck deep," Mayers said. "The reality is RJ's got such great speed that he was able to turn it into a great scoring chance. With no red line, we tried to spread them out. Teams do a good job of trying to clog up the neutral zone. Really, the only play is somehow to get it behind them."
The Blues also got goals from Andy McDonald and Keith Tkachuk. Manny Legace kicked out 30 shots for the victory, while handing the Kings their fifth straight loss and seventh in eight games.
"It was very spirited. You knew it was going to be a tight game," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "And it was a very tight game. But they got the breaks from the officials tonight on the calls, and that ended up being the difference in the game. We had that power play right at the very end of the game. I thought that our guys battled hard tonight, and they had six good chances in the third period. Unfortunately, we couldn't solve their goalie in the third period."
The Kings got goals from Alexander Frolov and Dustin Brown. They had a chance to tie it late with a 6-on-3 man advantage after pulling the goalie for a sixth-attacker, but couldn't get the equalizer.
Their best chance came on a slap shot from Michael Cammalleri from the top of the right circle that Legace was able to kick out.
"I saw it the whole way," Legace said. "I didn't see the second (shot) where it went over the net. I thank the good guy upstairs because I didn't see that one. I was just going down praying that it would hit me in the head or something."
McDonald quickly gave the Blues a 1-0 lead when he banged home a centering feed from Paul Kariya just 1:40 into the game, McDonald's 13th of the season.
The Blues has a terrific chance to grab a two-goal lead, but the 5-on-3 man advantage they had for 1:35 produced no goals even though they had four great chances.
"We had three or four great looks on the 5-on-3," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "It just wouldn't go in for us."
The Kings would tie it before the end of the first period as Frolov collected a loose puck in the slot and fired it past Legace with 47.4 seconds to play in the period for his 20th of the season and fifth goal in three games against St. Louis this season.
Brown gave Los Angeles a 2-1 lead 4:02 into the second period, snapping a shot from the left circle that squirted past Legace at the near post.
Tkachuk answered for the Blues in the second period with his 21st of the season and 494th of his career when he converted a 2-on-1 break at 11:53 of the period.
Ersberg, who was making his third start of the season as the Kings have been ravaged by injuries to their goalies, tried to poke the puck off Johnson's stick as he was coming in.
"Somehow, it bounced in and I really don't know where it went in," Ersberg said.
The Blues were able to defend the remaining time, including the last few minutes where they were penalized for the first times in the contest.
"We limit a team to two goals and we've done that in 11 of the last 13 games," Murray said. "It's amazing that our win totals have not been better than that, but tonight, we managed to score three goals."
Notes: A heavy snowstorm kept many of the announced crowd of 14,973 away from Scottrade Center. There were roughly half as many fans in attendance. The St. Louis metropolitan area got anywhere from 8 to 12 inches of snow throughout the day Tuesday. ... The Blues will hit the road for a nine-game road trip that begins Wednesday in Detroit. The trip will also take them to Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, San Jose, Anaheim, Montreal, Ottawa and Chicago.
Refs were idiots.
Brown did nothing to deserve a double minor. Clearly that piece of garbage Brewer was trying to start something with Brown in order to off set the 2 man advantage.
The more I see Lord Cammi on the ice in a king uniform, the more I see a player who's only in it for his own stats. The word PASS is not in his vocabulary. I wish it were Sully taking the last three shots he took. Two of which missed the net. BADLY.
I hope his highness is shipped out of town on draft day.
Does anyone else think Andy Murray sent Brewer after Brownie because of the way Brownie was pounding the shit out of his players? Especially the one where McKee took a trip into the Blues bench. If Andy had spent more time developing Brownie in his earlier years instead of playing him 8 minutes a game, God only knows how good he could be now.
Nobody cares what you think, Anthony
Thanks for the heads up regarding practice. I'll try to make it out.
I Care...
sorry Gary but I like reading what he writes
let's be technically correct: almost nobody cares.
I think going after Brown was cheap but when one guy on the ice is destroying your team like a wrecking ball all night, what are you gonna do. Brewer's a big guy but I like where he ended up - on his keyster. basically the call sucked, luckily it didn't matter too bad.
if anything Punky Brewer could have gotten an instigator for dropping the gloves first. but oh - then the coach would get fined - we couldn't allow that could we?? all Brown did was turn back towards the circle for a faceoff, Brewster did the opposite (turning right into and going after Brown) which the officials and league should not allow to happen.
Anthony the Brewer penalty had little effect as the
Kings still had a 6-3 manpower advantage. Amazingly they could not get a quality scoring chance. I am kind of suprised you are not railing against DL for not
playing Ersberg all season until now.
I declare Shenanigans!!!
That was some of the worst BS officiating i have ever seen in 20 years of watching and playing hockey. It was blatantly clear that Brewer was going after brown- how the f*** do the refs come up with a 4 minute high-sticking against brown and no instigator to brewer when brewer is pounding brown in the back of the head to start the fight! I truly hope this gets reviewed in Toronto because brewer deserves a suspension and murray a fine for instigating a fight in the final 5 minutes.
It's actually a pretty shrewd move by murray if you think about it- get your guys to start a scrum and hope for coincidental penalties- they already had the fewest possible skaters on the ice so another penalty won't hurt; coincidentals, on the other hand, reduces the number of players the kings are allowed on the ice. Bye-bye 6 on 3.
I'm going to regret this but I actually agree with Anthony on this one. I have not been pleased with Cammi's "team" play this season. the worst thing to happen to him coming off a failed arbitration is getting injured and missing so many games. He knows he needs his stats to reflect the money he is seeking whether it is with the kings or any other team. He's pressing too hard for points at the expense of the team. This team will win because the players believe in the "team" first . I question whether Cammi is on board with that at this point. And I don't think that one good season justifies the money he was seeking or is still seeking.
How long before Anthony takes over the Kings blog for Rich when he gets too busy?
I can't believe my eyes.
I'm used to having you guys rip at me, first chance you get.
Bottom line we're all King fans who want our team to succeed. At least we all have that in common.
Hold up a second guys. Ordinarily I'd agree with you, but this is a special case. If you consider Cammy to be trade bait this off season (as I do), you should want him shooting as much as possible. The more goals he has, the better the return in trade. If he has an obvious opportunity for an assist via an easy goal by someone else, of course he should pass the puck (and get an assist), but when that isn't clear, let'er rip. If his shooting every time limits the production of other starting players and costs us some games...so?
Cammy, get as many points as you can so you can bring back the best defenseman possible. If he shoots some ridiculous shots and a couple go in, consider it highlight-reel material (like when Kobe used to take insane shots from near half-court; when they go in, he looks like a stud, and when he misses, well, he shot from near half-court afterall).
Camy IS trying to score alone and it's not working.
The team was scoring more while he was out.
I think he is trying to show what he's got so he's worth more somewhere else.
Sorry to all those that are anti-Anthony but even a blind rat finds the cheese sometimes, (no I'm not calling Anthony a rat) so don't starting the rants on me. It's just this time I agree.
"Anthony the Brewer penalty had little effect as the
Kings still had a 6-3 manpower advantage."
if I recall, it was actually an empty net 5-3 after Brown was penalized, which quickly became an empty net 5 on 4 as a Blues player exited the box.
that's right brianguy
and lets all not forget that Murray accomplished what I think to be his main goal... get our top goal scorer OFF the ice for the 2 or 3 man advantage..
thats how that bastard stole the game.... more coaching like that and I'm moving him to the sh*tlist