{coyotes} Fast start, big finish power Kings past Coyotes

Thursday 24 October 2013

{coyotes} Fast start, big finish power Kings past Coyotes

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LOS ANGELES - Just think of how much better the Los Angeles Kings can be once Anze Kopitar and Mike Richards really get going.

L.A. somehow managed to get 10 games into the season without a goal from any of its centers, notably Kopitar and Richards, yet won six times. The two emerged from their slumps Thursday night to save the Kings from a meltdown in a 7-4 win against the Phoenix Coyotes.

Dwight King capped his first career hat trick with an empty-net goal as the Kings snapped the Coyotes' 5-0-2 unbeaten streak in regulation.

Phoenix erased a 4-0 deficit with two goals in a 3:55 span of the second period and two more in 59 seconds early in the third before Richards got the game-winner on a shorthanded breakaway. Richards took the puck from Radim Vrbata and slid a backhander past Thomas Greiss at 4:19 for his 28th career shorthanded goal.

Kopitar got his first goal in 27 games and made a pretty no-look assist to highlight a four-goal first period that chased goalie Mike Smith. But Phoenix mounted a comeback on goals by Jeff Halpern - his first as a Coyote - and Martin Hanzal, who banked the puck in off goalie Jonathan Quick from below the goal line in the second and tipped Keith Yandle's shot at 1:51 of the third.

Coyotes captain Shane Doan, a game-time decision because of a lower-body injury, tied it at 2:50 when he threw the puck on net and watched it skid in through traffic to stun the home crowd. It actually wasn't surprising because Phoenix has outscored opponents in the third period 16-9 this season.

But the Coyotes' seven-game point streak effectively ended when Matt Frattin got his first goal as a King at 12:11 of the third to put it out of reach. King hit the empty net with 22 seconds left.

Adding to the loss for Phoenix was that defenseman Rostislav Klesla left the game with a lower-body injury in the first period.

The Kings' forecheck and breakouts in the opening period were reminiscent of L.A.'s 2012 Western Conference Final series win against Phoenix. They outshot the Coyotes 15-5 and scored four goals against a Phoenix team that had allowed a total of nine first-period goals in the previous 10 games.

Kopitar grabbed a loose puck and wristed it past Smith 42 seconds into the game. He deftly slipped a pass to King off the right boards that King shot through an unsuspecting Smith for a 2-0 lead.

Jordan Nolan made it 3-0 at 10:14 before King executed a perfect redirect of Robyn Regehr's point shot to 17:56 to give L.A. four goals on 14 shots. It was the first time the Kings scored four goals in one period since March 5, 2013, against the St. Louis Blues.

It could have been more. Jeff Carter went in for a shorthanded attempt and Kopitar's wrist shot was gloved by Smith toward the end of the first period.

Phoenix went more than 12 minutes from the first period to the second without a shot on goal, and its defense didn't give Smith much help with eight giveaways in the opening period.

Lauri Korpikoski was scratched with an upper-body injury and is day-to-day.

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