BIG TRADE BEGINNING TO PAY OFF
LA WINS SECOND STRAIGHT GAME
KINGS HOOK THE SHARKS, 3-1
LOS ANGELES -- For almost a month, Jason Allison and Mikko Eloranta
struggled after being traded by the Boston Bruins to the Los Angeles
Kings on October 23.
Eloranta was already struggling with the Bruins, and his troubles were
compounded by the trade. He had to learn a new system, and get used
to his new teammates.
Allison had the same challenges facing Eloranta, but more important,
he was a contract holdout, and did not participate in the Bruins'
training camp--he was not anywhere close to being in game shape.
As a result, both players were having a difficult time getting to the
top of their game, and while they worked through their troubles, the
Kings suffered badly in the standings.
But both now appear to be at or very near the top of the games, and as
a result, the Kings went into Saturday's action unbeaten in their last
three games, with Allison and Eloranta leading the way.
And Saturday was no different, as Allison scored a goal and added an
assist, and Eloranta scored a goal, leading the Kings to a 3-1 victory
over the Pacific Division-leading San Jose Sharks during a matinee
contest in front of a sellout crowd of 18,118 at Staples Center.
Steve Heinze also scored a power play goal for the Kings, and Jamie
Storr made 22 saves.
The biggest factor in the Kings upswing has been the improved play of
Allison, whose ability to control the puck for long periods of time,
get the puck to his linemates to set-up scoring chances, and to put
the puck in the net, has made a big difference for the Kings over
their last four games, in which he has scored three goals and
contributed three assists for six points.
"Certainly his level of play has come up and that's to be expected,"
said Kings' head coach Andy Murray. "I said that all along when he got
to us. Some people didn't like it when I said he was half a player,
but he wasn't in shape. Now he is moving up every day."
"He's a marquee player," Heinze said about Allison. "Certainly, what
we saw early on is not indicative of how he plays. He just had to get
in the flow. He will be a guy who can carry us, night in and night
out. When you've got him and Ziggy Palffy firing, we're a pretty good
team."
Allison, who was frustrated about not being able to contribute at the
level he is capable of while he was playing himself back into game
shape, said that he is very close to being back where he wants to be.
"It's all about reading the play and anticipating what's going to
happen," Allison explained. "I'm not a big shooter. Most of my goals
are earned inside of 20-30 feet of the net. My game is just reading
where the play is gonna be, being a little elusive and somehow beating
a guy down low. That's starting to come around for me right now. Now
we're finding a way to win games instead of losing them."
Eloranta seems to be getting comfortable with the Kings now, after not
recording a point with the Kings until last Tuesday's game at Calgary
(5-5 tie).
In his last four games, Eloranta has a goal and three assists after
doing next to nothing in his previous outings, and having been a
healthy scratch twice since the trade.
For the last three games, Eloranta has been the best player on a line
with forwards Craig Johnson and Brad Chartrand, a line that has
clicked for three goals and seven assists for ten points in their last
three games, and collectively, have a +9 rating over those games.
"All three of us, we like to work hard," Eloranta said. "We just try
to be as aggressive as we can on the forecheck, while not forgetting
about defense."
"Suddenly, everybody is contributing," Storr said, referring to
Eloranta and his linemates. "The talent is here. We've just needed a
little nudge."
Murray is certainly happy with the play he is now getting from Allison
and Eloranta. But he likes what he now sees from his entire team.
"We played smart enough that we didn't get ourselves in trouble,"
Kings coach Andy Murray said. "I thought we won because we deserved
to win. The other games, we hadn't been deserving. It's amazing in
this sport that a week ago I was on my team for not competing and
battling."
One week ago, Murray was so disgusted with his team that he called
them, "...an insult to every parent who ever took their kid to
practice at 5:30 in the morning... ."
"I don't say things about them that I don't say to them," Murray said.
"They know I believe in them. Now we are seeing the reward for all the
hard work they've put in this year."
"It's amazing," Murray explained. "A week ago I was on my team for not
competing and not battling. I said a lot of things, but that's the way
I felt. And the reason I feel like that is because I see efforts like
this today and I say, 'Why can't we play like this all the time?' And
if we don't, it should be unacceptable."
"You set a standard for yourself and for your team, and that was a
pretty good standard we played with today," Murray added.
That hard work is now paying off, as the Kings are now 2-0-2 over
their last four games, and have won two consecutive games for the
first time this season.
"By winning these two games, hopefully we can build on that, build our
confidence," Heinze said. "Hopefully, we'll be lighter on our skates
and lighter with our sticks, all the things that come with having more
confidence.
"I almost wish we were playing tomorrow with the way we are playing,"
he added. "But we will stay focused."
Speaking of focused, Storr got his second consecutive start, and
played well, despite allowing a stoppable goal by San Jose winger
Teemu Selanne in the second period.
Storr played well, and came up with a number of big saves.
"You can just see his confidence growing back there," Allison said
about Storr. "He has worked hard in practice and he deserves this."
But Storr sure got a lot of help in this game.
At 1:39 of the third period, Sharks' forward Alexander Korolyuk took a
lead pass at the Kings' blue line, and got in behind Kings' defenseman
Mattias Norstrom. Norstrom dove, and swung his stick at the puck, but
wound up tripping Korolyuk instead.
Referee Dennis LaRue called for a penalty shot, and Korolyuk took the
puck down the slot and deked in front. Storr went down as Korolyuk
took the puck to his backhand at right crease and lifted the puck
towards the right side of the net. Storr got his glove and left leg
over to take away about half the net, but Korolyuk beat him anyway.
Except that the puck clanked off the right goal post, a stroke of luck
for the Kings.
"I just tried to anticipate his moves," Storr, who has not allowed a
goal in three career penalty shots. "But what is bigger to me is to
stay consistent throughout the game."
"Realistically, I was lucky on that shot," Storr added. "It hit the
post, but I'll take every lucky shot I can get because I've seen a lot
of lucky ones go in off me over the years. I just wanted to make sure
that if he was gonna score, he had to earn it. If he makes a great
shot, great, but I'm just going to take away as much of the net as I
can."
The break the Kings meant that instead of the Sharks taking a 2-1
lead, San Jose had the momentum sucked right out of them.
"If I score on the penalty shot, maybe we win," Korolyuk said.
On the next shift, Korolyuk beat Storr with a slap shot from the upper
left circle...and hit the right goal post again.
"I thought Korolyuk had a lot of energy today," Selanne said. "He was
a very active player and could've been a hero in the game. Tied 1-1 in
the third when he hits the post on the penalty and the goalie had no
chance. He was out of position. The next shot, he hits the same post.
If we score, it's a different story."
The Kings took full advantage of the lucky breaks, with Heinze scoring
at 3:57 on the power play, followed by Eloranta at 8:04.
"It was a good opportunity for us to re-group after that and score a
couple of big goals," Storr said.
"You look at that right there, that could have been quite a swing,"
Kings' defenseman Aaron Miller said. "Instead of them leading 2-1 and
swinging the tide of the game, it is still tied and we are feeling
good. It's never one thing that turns a team around, but we sure
looked better after that."
"Instead of pucks bouncing against us, they're bouncing with us,"
Heinze explained. "It's good karma. The stars are aligned. Whatever
you want to say. It's just happening. We're enjoying it and we're
going to try to keep it going."
After a good start, the Sharks are now heading in the other direction,
having lost four straight games.
"Right now, things aren't going well for us," Selanne said. "The puck
is not really bouncing for us."
"We've got a handful of guys carrying the mail and a handful of guys
dropping it," Sharks' head coach Darryl Sutter said.
But the Sharks remain positive.
"This is going to be a good test for us," Selanne explained. "Nobody
was expecting that we were going to have an easy way to the playoffs,
and we know we're going to make the playoffs, we just have to turn
this around and play smarter."
Scratches
---------
Los Angeles: Ken Belanger (healthy), Adam Deadmarsh (bruised abdominal
muscle, broken hand)
San Jose: Matt Bradley (healthy), Bryan Marchment (suspended),
Patrick Marleau (healthy)
Goalies
-------
Los Angeles: Jamie Storr
San Jose: Evgeni Nabokov (48:57), Vesa Toskala (8:57 of the third
period)
Referees: Dennis LaRue, Rob Schick
Linesmen: Lonnie Cameron, Vaughan Rody
First Period
------------
The Sharks used their strong forecheck to sustain pressure in the
Kings' zone from the very first shift. They maintained the territorial
advantage until...
1. LOS ANGELES. Allison 5 (Jaroslav Modry, Randy Robitaille), 3:24
Modry got the puck in the slot, in the Kings' zone. He had plenty of
room, so he carried the puck up the middle of the ice with speed. On
a three-on-two break, he crossed the blue line, where he threw a lead
pass to Robitaille in the right circle. Robitaille carried the puck
into the lower right circle where he backhanded the puck towards the
net. Modry was in front, and he deflected the puck high. Nabokov made
the save, but the puck bounced off his chest to left crease, where
Allison pounced on the rebound, and on his forehand, lifted the puck
over Nabokov's right leg pad.
At the 3:41 mark, Storr robbed Sharks' forwards Stephane Matteau and
Todd Harvey with two great saves from point-blank range, one on each
side of the net.
Second Period
-------------
A fairly even period for both teams.
At the 6:28 mark, the Kings dumped the puck into the San Jose zone off
the right wing glass. The puck took a crazy bounce off one of the
supports between the panes, and the puck bounced in front of the net
instead of going behind it.
Nabokov had gone behind the net to control the puck, but had to
scramble to get back. Meanwhile, the puck went right to Kings' left
wing Kelly Buchberger at the bottom of the left circle. He wound up
and fired a slap shot...only to be stoned by Nabokov, who dove back
and made a spectacular glove save.
Play was pretty even until the Sharks got a power play...
2. SAN JOSE. Selanne 6 (Jeff Jillson, Gary Suter), 16:46 POWER PLAY
With Modry in the box for tripping at 15:26, the Sharks moved the puck
around well on their power play. Jillson got the puck at the top of
the right circle. He then threw a quick pass to Selanne, who was at
the left face-off dot. Alone, Selanne took a stride towards the net,
and then let go with a wrist shot that trickled between Storr's leg
pads.
One could fault Storr for not making the save on this stoppable shot.
But two things spread the blame for this goal beyond Storr. First, it
was Selanne, one of the top goal-scorers in the league taking the shot
and second and more important, the Kings' penalty-killers allowed a
pass across the slot--something that should never be allowed to
happen.
Third Period
------------
After Korolyuk clanked his penalty shot off the right goal post at
1:39, and then hit the right post again on a slap shot from the top of
the left circle on the very next shift, the Kings did not waste much
time in taking advantage of the lucky break...
3. LOS ANGELES. Heinze 9 (Allison, Modry), 3:57 POWER PLAY
With Sharks' defenseman Scott Hannan off for hooking at 2:27, Storr
got the puck and seeing that the Sharks were in the middle of a line
change, threw a long clearing pass to Modry at the red line, on left
wing. Modry quickly passed ahead to Heinze, who was at the San Jose
blue line. Heinze quickly passed ahead to Allison, who was about five
feet inside left point. Just before he got checked, Allison pushed
the puck ahead back to Heinze, who was at the top of the right circle.
Alone, he carried the puck to the lower left circle. Just as he was
about to be hit by a San Jose defender, Heinze got off a little wrist
shot, and the puck slid through the five-hole (between Nabokov's leg
pads).
"You kind of feel him more than see him," Heinze said about the
defenseman who hit him just an instant after he got his shot off. "You
know a guy's coming, so I kind of gave him a little bit of a look to
see if anybody was going to the net and just threw it at the net."
"You've been there so many times that you just kind of close your eyes
and hope it goes in, hope you hit the right spot."
Tough to call this a soft goal allowed by Nabokov, seeing that Heinze
was in alone on him. But Nabokov did not play the shot well. He was
still moving when Heinze got the shot off--Nabokov was not set in
position...he was not ready for the shot.
The San Jose penalty-killers also get much of the blame for not
hustling onto the ice on their line change.
"Bad change," Sutter said. "Not in terms of who was coming off. It was
who was coming on. They didn't get out there."
4. LOS ANGELES. Eloranta 1 (Johnson, Chartrand), 8:04
Chartrand got the puck along the left wing boards, and threw it behind
the net. He chased it down, but was checked by Suter. The puck was
still loose behind the net, and Johnson swooped in to pick it up. He
moved behind the right goal post, and passed to Eloranta, who was in
the right circle. Eloranta moved to the lower right circle where he
flicked a high wrist shot past Nabokov, beating him top shelf, right
corner of the net.
A nice shot by Eloranta for his first goal with the Kings.
At the 8:57 mark, Toskala replaced Nabokov in goal for the Sharks.
The Kings had to kill two penalties during the last four minutes of
the period, and the Sharks pulled Toskala for the extra attacker with
more than one minute left, but were unable to score.
Shots on Goal
-------------
Los Angeles: 7 6 6 -- 19
San Jose: 10 6 7 -- 23
Power Play Conversions
----------------------
Los Angeles: 1/4; San Jose: 1/6
Zone Time
---------
Los Angeles: 8:44 7:26 8:39 -- 24:49
San Jose: 7:35 8:07 6:40 -- 22:22
Neutral: 3:41 4:27 4:41 -- 12:49
Three Stars (official)
----------------------
#3 - Norstrom; #2 - Storr; #1 - Allison
Gann's Three Stars
------------------
#3 - Modry; #2 - Storr; #1 - Allison
Going unbeaten in four games, with a 2-0-2 record over that stretch,
is an encouraging sign for a team that has not had much reason to be
encouraged so far this season. But with Allison near the top of his
game and so many other players contributing now, the Kings could find
themselves back in the playoff picture before too long.
Nevertheless, 2-0-2 is not something to get too excited about.
Encouraged, yes. Excited? Nope. After a few more games, we will see
where the Kings are at that time. Maybe then it will be time to get
excited.
Storr coming up with strong performances has certainly given the Kings
a lift, and his dedication and hard work in practice is paying off.
"You can just see his confidence growing back there," Allison said
about Storr. "He has worked hard in practice and he deserves this."
Reports out of the Kings' practice facility state that Storr's work
ethic has improved greatly.
Instead of being challenged to work harder in practice, he is
reportedly now one of the hardest workers on the ice.
"What is the difference between Patrick Roy and a backup goaltender?"
Storr said when asked about his new-found work ethic. "Does he have a
better body, is he in better shape? No, the difference is all mental.
He wants it so bad and it shows in everything he does. He is
relentless in his preparation. That is the difference. That is what
you strive for."
Next Game: The Kings get two days off before returning to practice on
Tuesday, when they begin preparing for the Edmonton Oilers, who skate
into Staples Center on Thursday. 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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