LOS ANGELES — In sports, a team often makes its own breaks, and when things are going bad, the breaks almost always go against you.
That was exactly what happened on January 20, when the Los Angeles Kings dropped a 2-0 decision to the Phoenix Coyotes in front of an announced sellout crowd of 18,118 fans at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Despite outplaying and outworking the Coyotes from start to finish and outshooting them, 36-15 for the game, including a 13-4 margin in the second period, the Kings were stymied by Coyotes goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, who recorded his third shutout of the season and the 18th regular season shutout of his National Hockey League career.
The Coyotes got a huge break when forward Martin Hanzal appeared to knock the puck past Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick while his stick was above the height of the cross bar.
All four on-ice officials agreed that the goal should count. League officials in Toronto said that they did not have an angle on video replay that could overrule the call on the ice. However, one angle clearly showed that Hanzal’s stick blade came down on top of the cross bar after the puck deflected off the heel of his stick—conclusive evidence that his stick was above the height of the cross bar when he deflected the puck into the net.
Despite outplaying the Coyotes, the Kings rarely had traffic in front of Bryzgalov, who saw most shots clearly, and was forced to make few difficult saves.
NOTES
- The 15 shots allowed was a season low (previous low was 19). The Kings entered the game allowing the second fewest shots in the NHL (27.7 per game).
- The Kings’ season high for shots is 37 (December 27 at San Jose).
- Jarret Stoll won 11 of 14 face-offs (78.6 percent). He entered the day tied for fifth overall in the NHL.
- The Kings have allowed eight goals in the last four games (two in each game).
- Rob Scuderi played in his 99th straight game tonight (streak started December 7, 2009).
- Justin Williams played in his 599th career game tonight
Raw audio interviews
(Edited to remove extraneous material and dead air)
Justin Williams (4:29)
Anze Kopitar (1:50)
Terry Murray (4:22)
Game Highlights From NHL Video On YouTube
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Murray needs to put assistant coach Stevens as the coach of the power play. We aren’t playing that bad as a team, allowing only 2 goals in the last 4 games. The power play is terrible. There is no movement of players or the puck and all of the shots come from the point and are either blocker or are not on target at all.