LOS ANGELES — Dustin Brown, Jeff Carter, Trevor Lewis and Anze Kopitar scored goals to lead the Los Angeles Kings to a 4-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche in a sell-out, matinee contest at Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 23.
Brown was unchecked in the slot, and scored on a one-timer from the left hashmark just 58 seconds into the game, setting the tone for the rest of the game, with the Avalanche often more than one step behind.
Carter’s team-leading ninth goal of the season came off a wrist shot from the top of the left circle after he snuck into the zone from the bench.
Milan Hejduk cut the Kings’ lead in half with a power play goal just 1:16 into the second period, but Lewis converted a shorthanded chance with what looked like a half-speed wrist shot off the rush from outside the right face-off dot. The shot beat Colorado netminder Semyon Varlamov between his pads at the 2:51 mark—it was a soft goal.
Kopitar came off the bench during a line change and took a pass from left wing Dustin Penner in the left circle. Unchecked, he fired a quick wrist shot off the left goal post, beating Varlamov at 16:42 of the third period to close out the scoring.
Varlamov made 22 saves in the losing effort. Jonathan Quick made 23 saves to record his fifth win of the season.
Prior to the game, the team honored former Kings right wing Ian Laperriere (audio interview and video below; feature story coming soon). The Kings also honored the memory of former team owner, Dr. Jerry Buss, who died on February 18.
NOTES:
- The Kings have now won a season high three straight games, and have won five of their last six games, outscoring opponents 18-8.
- The Kings are 6-1-1 when scoring first.
- Kopitar and Brown each have 168 career goals with the Kings, tied with Alexander Frolov for tenth all-time in franchise history.
- Carter earned his fourth game-winning goal this season. Four of his nine goals have been game-winners. He also has goals in three straight games, five goals in the last six games, and seven points in the last seven games (five goals and two assists).
- Lewis scored his first career shorthanded goal. He has points in three straight games (two goals, two assists for four points).
- Kopitar has seven points in the last seven games (two goals, five assists). The Kings are now 95-27-13 when Kopitar scores a goal.
- With an assist on Brown’s goal, Justin Williams earned his 100th assist with the Kings.
- With an assist on Carter’s goal, Mike Richards now has six points in the last six games (three goals, three assists).
Raw Audio Interviews
(Extraneous material and dead air have been removed; click on the arrow to listen):
Jeff Carter (2:45)
Jonathan Quick (1:13)
Jarret Stoll (4:22)
Darryl Sutter (7:23)
Game Highlights From KingsVision: Colorado Avalanche vs. Los Angeles Kings, February 23, 2013, Staples Center, Los Angeles, California
Used with permission. All videos provided by KingsVision at LAKings.com, or NHL.com require Adobe Flash Player. As such, they are not viewable on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch).
Frozen Royalty by Gann Matsuda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this site are required. Photographs, graphic images, and other content not specified are subject to additional restrictions. Additional information is available at: Frozen Royalty – Licensing and Copyright Information.
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My man Anze finally found the way pass the goalkeeper :) Kings are looking really better through the last few days. I hope they continue with current winning streak!
Gann, I’m not talking about you. I know it is trendy to complain about Jake Muzzin. But seriously, what does the kid have? 20 to 30 games in the NHL? The kid will be just fine. He does far more things very well, than he does badly. By the end of the year he will not be a rookie any longer, and most of his bad habits will have disappeared. I just hope everyone starts to cut this kids some slack.
Also, what do you think about the Kings keeping there for a blue uniforms? If they do, I suggest that they change the road gold to white jerseys, keeping the crown logo the same and the trim areas the same, but dividing the trim areas between half forum blue and half forum gold, very minimal, and keeping the pants forum blue.
Damn, I hate typos. *keeping the forum blue unis.*
also, have you noticed the pre ponderance of the misuse of “then” and “than? I am not sure if it is a voice dictation problem, or bad English habits. Either way it drives me nuts.
Are ponderance = preponderance
I’ll take the jersey question first. I’m old school. I remember going to games at the Forum, and seeing the “Forum Blue and Gold” jerseys for so many years. I don’t want them to be changed at all. Each of the Kings jerseys over the years have their place. I say respect the history and traditions…don’t change’em.
As for Muzzin, you know how it is. Fans like to whine, bitch, moan, etc. That’s part of being a fan, for many people, and it’s their right to do that, as fans, if they so desire. Sure, one can go overboard if they run a point into the ground, but that’s a separate issue.
Muzzin does have an issue with being too hard on himself, and losing confidence as a result. At least, that was an issue for him in Manchester the last couple of seasons. From talking to him this season, I’m not getting the sense that this has been an issue, but that could change rather quickly. I can say that he has done a bit of growing up since he first joined the Kings a couple of years ago.