|
|
 |
 |
|
| |
Saturday, Dec. 18 10:30pm ET
Dumont leads sharp-shooting 'Hawks | |||||
|
| ||||||
|
RECAP
|
BOX SCORE
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Chicago Blackhawks didn't dwell on the fact that the Los Angeles Kings had allowed 15 goals in their previous two games, or that goalie Stephane Fiset was making his first start in more than a month. "I don't know how many guys were thinking about that," left wing Dean McAmmond said after Chicago's 8-4 victory Saturday night. "I think we were just focusing on what we had to do. Sure, they struggled in their last two games, but they're still professionals and they have a lot of pride. So we couldn't take them too lightly." Jean-Pierre Dumont had two goals for the Blackhawks, who ended a 10-game losing streak against the Kings after putting three of their first four shots behind Fiset. Doug Zmolek, Tony Amonte and Dumont connected during a 3:06 span to ignite the rout. "In all honesty, the pucks just went in for us tonight," said Blackhawks coach Bob Pulford, whose 178 victories as Kings coach during the 1970s are still a club record. "I don't think LA played as bad as the eight goals indicated. We could just do no wrong." Fiset beat the Blackhawks 3-1 on Oct. 30 in Chicago for his last victory, but bruised his right hand 10 days later in pregame warmups and was sidelined for 14 games. He was activated Tuesday and played the final two periods in each of the previous two games after Jamie Storr surrendered three goals to the New Jersey Devils and six to the New York Rangers. Storr, whose head struck the crossbar during a collision with Montreal's Martin Ruchinsky on Dec. 11, was placed on the injured list Friday because of post-concussion syndrome. That left Fiset as the only practical choice to end the Kings' worst defensive stretch of the season. "We don't look at anything like that because you can turn that around at any time," Chicago center Doug Gilmour said. "We've been through that at different times this year ourselves. But we wanted to get on them and we wanted to get a lot of shots and a lot of people in front of Fiset to make it that much harder for him." Dave Manson capped Chicago's four-goal first period with a power-play score, his first goal of the season. Sylvain Cote, Bryan McCabe and Steve Sullivan also had power-play goals for the Blackhawks, who were a season-best 4-for-7 with the man advantage after going 1-for-23 in their previous five games. "The power play is something we work on a lot," Gilmour said. "Sometimes you score on it and sometimes you don't, but as long as we create the chances that we want, you're going to capitalize sooner or later." Craig Johnson scored twice and Bryan Smolinski and Ian Laperriere also had goals for the Kings, who have surrendered 13 first-period goals and 23 altogether during their three-game losing streak -- as many as they allowed in their previous 10 games combined. "We hope to stop it by our next game," coach Andy Murray said. "Our approach at this point is that everything that could go wrong in a game went wrong for us. Our goaltending has not been at the level that we need to have it. But the bottom line is that the guys in this room care, and we're all bleeding in this together." Fiset whose previous start was on Nov. 6, surrendered six goals on 21 shots before he was replaced by Marcel Cousineau at 8:41 of the second period. Fiset began his ugly night with a delay-of-game penalty after clearing the puck over the glass just 21 seconds after the opening faceoff. The Blackhawks came up empty on the ensuing power play, but grabbed a 3-1 lead by the 5:51 mark as they won for only the fifth time in their last 17 games and beat the Kings for the first time since Feb. 1, 1997. Zmolek used teammate Ed Olczyk and Kings defenseman Frantisek Kaberle as a screen to beat Fiset from the right point at the 2:45 mark. Just 38 seconds after Smolinski tied it, the Blackhawks regained the lead for good on Amonte's wrist shot from the top of the left circle that deflected in off the leg of Kings defenseman Mattias Norstrom. Another 52 seconds ticked off the clock before Dumont got a pass in front from Eric Daze and put his first of the game between Fiset's glove and the right post. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Chicago Clubhouse Los Angeles Clubhouse RECAPS Calgary 2 Ottawa 1
Chicago 8
  | |||||