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Friday, Oct. 15 9:00pm ET
Kings of the road win again | |||||
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CALGARY, Alberta (AP) -- On a night when the stars of the Los Angeles Kings were shut down, the supporting cast came through. Donald Audette and Bryan Smolinski each had a goal and an assist Friday night as the Kings continued their early season hot streak with a 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames.
"I finally got one, Donald got one, and that's what we're supposed to do," said Smolinski, who along with Audette collected their first points of the season. "It's been a season of ups and downs for us and it's great to be finally rewarded." Garry Galley and Marko Tuomainen also scored their first goals of the season for the Kings (4-1-1-0), who were playing the sixth game of a seven-game road trip to start the season. The final game is at Edmonton on Saturday night. "My first goal as coach was to make sure I was still coach by our home opener at the Staples Center," first-year coach Andy Murray said with a smile. "And when you looked at our road trip, some people might have doubted that." Smolinski opened the scoring 5:52 into the second period when he one-timed a pass from Audette past goaltender Grant Fuhr for the first point of the season for both players. With the Kings leading 2-1 in the third period, Audette took a pass from Smolinski and from the right wing blasted a hard 30-foot slapshot over Fuhr's outstretched glove. "We feel that unit has generated chances in all of the games that we've played and have not been rewarded for their effort," Murray said of the second line of Smolinski, Audette and Glen Murray. "They've stayed together because they've played hard." Bill Lindsay scored for the Flames (1-4-1-0), who have just a tie in four home games. "We've started the games really flat and sometimes at home, I think you expect an easy game," Lindsay said, trying to explain the poor home record. With the score tied 1-1, the Kings scored the go-ahead goal at 12:43 of the second when Galley's long shot from the blue line eluded Fuhr. "We're capable of playing a hell of a lot better than we played tonight," Calgary coach Brian Sutter said. "Our goaltenders and our defense were left high and dry on their own all night." Goaltender Stephane Fiset played in his sixth consecutive game for Los Angeles and turned in another strong game as the Kings were outshot 28-23. Fiset lowered his goals-against average to 1.40 and improved his save percentage to .949. After being involved in all but one of the Kings' 14 goals coming into the game, the line of Palffy, Stumpel and Robitaille was shut down by the Flames checking line of Lindsay, Jeff Shantz, and Travis Brigley.
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Los Angeles 4 AUDIO/VIDEO Marko Tuomainen takes the pass and puts it home. avi: 623 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 |