{coyotes} KINGS (8-4-0) at COYOTES (7-3-2)

Monday, 28 October 2013

{coyotes} KINGS (8-4-0) at COYOTES (7-3-2)

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KINGS (8-4-0) at COYOTES (7-3-2)

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

10:00 PM ET

TV: FS-W, FS-A

Last 10: Los Angeles 7-3-0; Phoenix 6-2-2

Season series: This is the second of five meetings and second in six days between these Pacific Division rivals. The Los Angeles Kings blew a 4-0 lead but recovered for a 7-4 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Oct. 24, as Dwight King recorded his first NHL hat trick.

Big story: Early returns suggest the Pacific could be the best of the four divisions. The San Jose Sharks have just one regulation loss, the Anaheim Ducks reeled off seven consecutive wins at one point and the Vancouver Canucks recently completed a long road trip by taking three in a row. The Kings and Coyotes are both off to solid starts of their own, but they're only tied for fourth place entering Tuesday's action. It's a big two points at stake for each club.

Team Scope:

Kings: The victories may not be coming particularly easy for Los Angeles right now, but once again Sunday the Kings managed to escape with two points. This time it involved outshooting the Edmonton Oilers 48-18 through regulation and overtime, but needing a shootout to leave Staples Center with a 2-1 win.

Mike Richards was the only King to solve Richard Bachman prior to the penalty-shot tiebreaker; he scored again in the first round and Anze Kopitar notched the decisive goal in the third round.

"You've got to keep on plugging away," Kopitar said. "That's what it is. Last game, we scored four in the first. Tonight, we just couldn't do it. But you can't get frustrated; keep on going, keep on going. Eventually, they're going to go in. Having 48 shots meant we were doing something right."

Coyotes: Over the past nine games, only Los Angeles has prevented Phoenix from gaining at least one point. The Coyotes rebounded from their loss to the Kings last week by edging the Oilers 5-4 on Saturday afternoon.

In a back-and-forth battle that saw the Oilers carry a 4-3 lead into the final 10 minutes of the third period, Keith Yandle's first goal of the season tied it and fellow defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson followed just 1:43 later with the game-winner. Both goals came on the power play.

"The defense scored four goals today," Yandle said, also referencing earlier scores by Michael Stone and David Schlemko. "If you look at our back end, every guy can jump up and make plays and I thought we did that today."

Who's hot: Richards (2-1-3) and Jeff Carter (1-2-3) have three-game point streaks for the Kings. … Yandle (1-5-6) and Radim Vrbata (1-5-6) have three-game point streaks for the Coyotes. Each had a three-point game Saturday, as did Ekman-Larsson.

Injury report: Phoenix forward Jeff Halpern (upper body) is day-to-day. Defenseman Rostislav Klesla (lower body) and forward Lauri Korpikoski (upper body) are on injured reserve. Martin Hanzal, who has three goals in the past two games, is suspended for the next two games for charging Oilers defenseman Jeff Petry on Saturday.

Team Stats