FINALLY...LA GETS A WIN
KINGS DOWN THRASHERS, 4-1
11.3.01
LOS ANGELES -- Steve Heinze scored a power play goal and added an
assist, and Eric Belanger scored two goals to lead the Los Angeles
Kings to a 4-1 win over the Atlanta Thrashers in front of 14,278 fans
during a matinee contest at Staples Center on Saturday.
Randy Robitaille also scored for the Kings.
Hnat Domenichelli scored the lone goal for Atlanta.
This was a game between two struggling teams. The Kings had lost
five straight going into Saturday's action, while the Thrashers had
lost their two previous contests.
Something had to give, and the Thrashers looked like they were
willing to just hand the game to the Kings, as they came out very
flat to start the game.
In fact, Atlanta was so bad, they failed to record a single shot on
goal in the first period.
"That's awful and embarrassing," Thrashers' center and team captain
Ray Ferraro said. "That's completely unfathomable. You think you'd
get one by accident."
"We were outworked in the first part of the game," Ferraro added. "We
obviously weren't prepared to play. That's completely unacceptable."
"There was nothing there," Ferraro elaborated. "There was a void.
Everybody is to blame. Even [Atlanta goalie] Milan [Hnilicka] gives
up a forty-foot rebound for a goal [that was disallowed at the end of
the first period] or it would've been 3-0. That will not happen
again. They [management] won't let it happen because they'll make
changes. I've been playing for eighteen years and that's the first
time I've been on a team that didn't get a shot."
The Kings were a bit surprised about not giving up a shot in the
first period.
"You look at our shots against numbers and you wouldn't believe our
record," Kings' head coach Andy Murray said, noting that the Kings
lead in NHL in shots against, allowing just 24.0 shots per game going
into Saturday's action. "I think we've done a very good job all year
of not giving up shots, but you're obviously very surprised when you
don't give up one."
"We needed a game like that," said Belanger. "We were looking for a
perfect game."
Atlanta head coach Curt Fraser was seething after the game.
"We, for whatever reason, hit some kind of crazy funk," an angry
Atlanta head coach Curt Fraser said. "We came out and everybody's
jumping, ready to go before we get on the ice. Then we get out on the
ice and it looks like we have never played hockey before."
"I don't know what's going on in that locker room right now," added
Fraser.
"We're too far away from people, and on the walls we're not as
committed as we were before to battling," Fraser lamented. "We're
moving away from loose pucks. We're not using our speed like we
were."
For the Kings, they just needed a win. Period.
"It's good to get a win," Kings' forward Ian Laperriere said. "It
doesn't matter if it's Atlanta or Dallas. They're all NHL players,
just like me. We had to work hard after the first period, because we
really needed to win."
"We needed to stop the bleeding," said Kings' center Jason Allison,
who played in his first win with the Kings since he was acquired from
Boston on October 23. "We've played well in a lot of games and still
lost. Sometimes, you just need a win to kind of break that hex and
get yourself feeling good about winning."
"It seems like when you're losing games, no matter how well you're
playing, you find a way to lose them," Allison added. "When you're
winning games, even when you're playing bad, you seem to find a way
to win. Hopefully, we've switched that over."
Heinze said that the win should be a positive that the team can take
into next week.
"At least we get a few days to think about [the win] and hopefully
get our spirits up," Heinze said. "We got a win and hopefully we get
back on track now. It does bring back some confidence that we can get
a lead, hold a lead and play sixty minutes, no matter who you are
playing against. That's a big positive for us. Our defense has to be
sharp because we've been giving up three, four, five goals a game.
And you're not going to win too many games in the league that way."
Kings' head coach Andy Murray explained that one win does not mean
much in the grand scheme of things, and that his team still needs to
play better.
"You win and you feel good, you lose and you don't," Murray said. "We
still saw some things there that we can work on Monday [in
practice]."
"We are climbing a ladder back to where we want to be," Murray added.
"That's kind of the theme I discussed with the guys, that we take it
one day at a time and start the climb."
"That's a step forward, obviously, getting a win," he continued. "It
doesn't matter whether it's the Colorado Avalanche or Atlanta.
Atlanta has beaten a couple of good teams this year. To get a win was
certainly important."
"That's been so tough for us recently," said Murray, noting that his
team has had a lot of trouble scoring goals. "I was glad to see Eric
[Belanger] put the third one in, and I think a little air went out of
the Thrashers there."
At least defense was not a huge problem for the Kings in this game,
even though they were not perfect on defense.
"That's one of the things we practiced a lot in the last few days,
playing our zone," said Belanger. "If we take care of our own zone,
we know we have the skills up front to score some goals and that's
what happened today."
"When you don't give up any shots, your chances are good that you're
going to win the game," Belanger added.
Scratches
---------
Los Angeles: Derek Bekar, Ken Belanger, Jere Karalahti (all healthy)
Atlanta: Petr Buzek (healthy), Jeff Odgers (broken ankle), Daniel
Tjarnqvist (healthy)
Goalies
-------
Los Angeles: Felix Potvin
Atlanta: Milan Hnilicka
Referees: Stephane Auger, Mike Leggo
Linesmen: Wayne Bonney, Brad Lazarowich
First Period
------------
Both teams started conservatively, but the Kings were the only team
to generate anything closely resembling a quality scoring chance in
the first period. And then, with a little more than five minutes
remaining in the period, the Kings got things going...
1. LOS ANGELES. Robitaille 1 (Heinze, Lubomir Visnovsky), 14:52
After a good backchecking shift, the Kings turned the puck back up
ice quickly. The Thrashers got the puck in their own zone, but
Visnovsky knocked down a clearing pass at right point. He moved to
the top of the right circle and passed to Kings' center Bryan
Smolinski, who was outside the right circle. He threw a centering
pass to Visnovsky, but the puck deflected off his skate to Atlanta
rookie forward Ilya Kovalchuk, who started up ice. But Heinze lifted
Kovalchuk's stick and stripped him of the puck. Heinze chased it
down, and at the top of the right circle, spun, and fired a slap shot
that was stopped by Hnilicka. But the rebound went to Robitaille,
who was parked in front, and while being knocked down, he backhanded
the puck past Hnilicka on the second whack, just inside the right
goal post.
A good hustle shift by the Kings on this play, and a careless error
by the rookie Kovalchuk. He started heading up ice, thinking offense
before he had control of the puck. That allowed Heinze to move in on
him quickly, lift Kovalchuk's stick, and steal the puck. The
turnover caught the Thrashers off-balance, with three players heading
up ice with Kovalchuk. That left them unprepared for the rebound in
front.
And after this miscue, Kovalchuk, who has been criticized for being a
one-dimensional, offense-only player, was benched for quite awhile by
Fraser.
"I've been letting it go, letting it go," Fraser said about
Kovalchuk's lack of attention to defense. "I've been patient, seeing
if he could improve his work on the defensive end. But today it
really cost us."
"Whether it means he has to sit out a game or not, that's it," Fraser
added. "I've limited his ice time before, but this was the first time
I've found it necessary to pull him off. He's hurting our team now,
and I can't have that. I've run out of patience."
Kovalchuk understood Fraser's frustration.
"I can't play like that," he said. [The goal] was my fault."
2. LOS ANGELES. Heinze 6 (Mathieu Schneider, Jason Allison),
19:35 POWER PLAY
With Atlanta center Per Svartvadet off for slashing at 18:28, and
with Thrashers' defenseman Chris Tamer in the box for holding the
stick at 19:22, the Kings had a two-man advantage for 1:06. The Kings
moved the puck around the perimeter a bit before Schneider got the
puck at the top of the left circle. He passed to Allison, who was at
the bottom of the left circle. He passed right back to Schneider,
who fired a one-time slap shot that was stopped by Hnilicka. But he
left the rebound at right crease where Heinze controlled it, then
wristed it past Hnilicka, beating him low, just inside the right goal
post.
"[Heinze has] the skills to [score big goals]," Laperriere said.
"He's not a sniper, like [former Kings' left wing] Luc [Robitaille]
is, but he's got that grit and he works very hard. He's just a good
fit with Bryan Smolinski, and I really like him. Even if he doesn't
score goals out there, he's doing something good for our team."
Tough break for Hnilicka on this play. He was screened on
Schneider's shot by his own defenseman, Brian Pothier, so he could
not control the rebound.
With about four seconds left in the period, Schneider fired a hard
slap shot from right point in the Kings' zone. Hnilicka made the
save, but gave up a long rebound. Robitaille beat the Atlanta
players, who had given up on the play with time expiring. He moved
in front and fanned on the puck before he was able to "score" on a
backhand from right crease just as time expired.
Video replay showed that the puck crossed the goal line just a split
second after time had expired. But regardless, allowing Robitaille to
get past them and "score" with time expiring was a lazy, careless
play by the Thrashers.
And when the first period was over, the Kings not only had a 2-0
lead, but they held the Thrashers without a shot on goal, the first
time Atlanta has been held without a shot in a period in franchise
history.
For the Kings, it was the second time they have held an opponent
without a shot in period. But the last time they accomplished this
was over twenty years ago. On April 5, 1978, the Kings were on the
road when they held the St. Louis Blues without a shot in the second
period.
Second Period
-------------
The Thrashers woke up, and for the most part, outworked and
outhustled the Kings in the second period. Combine that with three
Atlanta power plays, and the Thrashers were able to take the momentum
away from the Kings.
At the 2:49 mark, Kings' defenseman Jason Holland threw a hard check
along the right wing boards in the Kings' zone on Atlanta center
Patrik Stefan, who jumped up to avoid the hit, but took the full
impact of the hit on his right arm.
Stefan, who was in his second game after returning from a broken jaw,
went down, but skated off the ice under his own power. Stefan
underwent X-ray examinations, which were negative, and did not
return. Later reports stated that he suffered strained ligaments and
a hyperextended elbow, and will be out at least one week.
3. ATLANTA. Domenichelli 3 (Dany Heatley), 14:13
Domenichelli got in behind the Kings' defense, and got off a good
wrist shot from inside the left face-off dot. Potvin made the save,
and the rebound went to the right side of the net, where Holland got
it on the goal line. But Heatley swooped in and stole the puck. From
behind the left goal post, he passed behind the net to Domenichelli,
who was below the goal line, about halfway between the right corner
and the net. He quickly moved below the right circle, and wristed
the puck into the wide open net, as Potvin had fallen down.
A bad break for the Kings. Potvin tripped over the skates of Kings'
defenseman Jaroslav Modry, who was standing at the left goal post.
But Modry does not get the blame for this goal. If anything, Holland
got caught cheating to the right side of the ice, leaving half the
ice wide open for Domenichelli to skate in uncontested until he got
to the left face-off dot. Modry had to cover for Holland, and both
defensemen wound up on the left side of the ice.
On the very next shift, Atlanta center Ray Ferraro got behind the
Kings' defense, this time because Modry got caught pinching in from
left point at the wrong time, and because Holland got caught
flat-footed at the Atlanta blue line. That gave Ferraro the entire
middle of the ice, and he got the puck at center ice. Modry was able
to catch up to him, but Ferraro still got off a good shot from the
low slot, even though Potvin made the save.
Two very poor shifts in a row by the defensive pair of Holland and
Modry. Combine that with the Kings being outworked and outhustled by
the Thrashers in the second period, the Kings were very fortunate
that they allowed just one goal in the period.
Third Period
------------
The Kings woke up and re-took control of the game early...
4. LOS ANGELES. Eric Belanger 2 (Ian Laperriere, Modry), 1:55
Modry had the puck behind the Kings' net, and threw a clearing pass
up the right wing boards that was tipped by Ferraro to Laperriere at
center ice. He carried the puck into the Atlanta zone and at the top
of the right circle, dropped a backhand pass to Belanger, who was
trailing the play. Behind the defense, Belanger kicked the puck to
his stick as he moved down the slot. From just inside the left
hashmark, he fired a wrist shot that beat Hnilicka high, just inside
the left goal post.
"The play started behind the net," Belanger said. "Mathieu Schneider
made the pass out and Lappy just came flying through the middle. He
made a great play to give it to me, and as soon as I got the puck in
front of me, I just wanted to shoot it on the net. And it went in.
It was a big goal at that point."
Actually, it was Modry who made the pass...
Laperriere and Belanger attacked the Atlanta zone with speed, backing
off the Thrashers' defensemen. But the Atlanta defenseman also
played this poorly. Belanger skated right by Thrashers' defenseman
Yannick Tremblay in the slot before scoring.
The Kings controlled things the rest of the way, and the Thrashers
pulled Hnilicka for the extra attacker late in the game, but...
5. LOS ANGELES. Belanger 3 (Kelly Buchberger, Philippe Boucher),
19:23 EMPTY NET
After the Thrashers missed on a great chance from the lower left
circle, Boucher cleared the puck ahead to Buchberger, and the Kings
had a two-on-one break. Buchberger carried the puck into the Atlanta
zone on left wing. He passed to Belanger at the top of the right
circle, and Belanger wristed the puck into the gaping net.
Shots on Goal
-------------
Los Angeles: 14 13 11 -- 38
Atlanta: 0 10 6 -- 16
Power Play Conversions
----------------------
Los Angeles: 1/6; Atlanta: 0/4
Zone Time
---------
Los Angeles: 9:38 10:05 6:52 -- 26:35
Atlanta: 6:04 6:47 9:00 -- 21:51
Neutral: 4:18 3:08 4:08 -- 11:34
Three Stars (official)
----------------------
#3 - Domenichelli; #2 - Robitaille; #1 - Heinze
Gann's Three Stars
------------------
#3 - Robitaille; #2 - Belanger; #1 - Heinze
Despite not playing well in the second period and letting the
Thrashers back into the game, the Kings played their best periods of
hockey in weeks in the first and third periods. This was something
positive to take from this game, in addition to it being their first
win since October 23, when they defeated the Columbus Blue Jackets,
7-1, at Columbus.
The win was also just the Kings' second win at home this season.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that the Kings defeated an inferior
team that has more problems than they do.
But a win is exactly what the Kings needed to help them get moving
back in the right direction, and this game was a start.
Kings' defenseman Mattias Norstrom appears to be back to 100%, or at
least very near it. He threw a hard hit on Domenichelli in the
second period, not something one would expect from a player trying to
avoid further injury.
Norstrom suffered torn rib cartilage on October 13. He missed only
three games, but even after returning, he was not the physical player
he normally was.
About the three stars...in a 4-1 loss in which a team fails to record
a shot in a period, no player from that team deserves to be one of
the three stars. As such, Belanger deserved to be one of the three
stars. He not only scored a big goal to give the Kings a 3-1 lead,
but his goal took the wind out of the Thrashers' sails after Atlanta
stole away the momentum from the Kings in the second period.
Belanger also won 64% of this face-offs to lead both teams. He
received my #2 star of the game, ahead of Robitaille.
For Atlanta, their best player by far was rookie forward Dany
Heatley. At least in the second period, he was a threat to score, or
create a good scoring chance for his linemates. He clearly has a lot
of skill, and is not slouch physically. Heatley could become a star
with his talent.
Next Game: The Kings get four days off before they host the NHL's
leading scorer, Jarome Iginla and the surprising Calgary Flames.
Game time: 7:30 PM PST. Televised in the Los Angeles area on Fox
Sports Net West beginning at 7:00 PM with the "Break the Ice"
pre-game show.
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