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  Thursday, Jan. 6 10:30pm ET
Trigger-happy Kings stop Florida
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Kings had five times as many shots as Florida after two periods, yet weren't taking anything for granted.

Len Barrie had the first two-goal game of his NHL career and the Kings outshot the Panthers 41-17 in a 4-2 victory Thursday night.

"They're the type of team that can score two goals in one period, even though you're outshooting them," Barrie said, "so you have to be careful. They could have easily come around and tied it up."

Florida's biggest scoring threat, Pavel Bure, was limited to one assist. Three of his four shots on goal came in the third period when the Panthers closed within a goal.

The Kings, who won for just the second time in 10 games, tied a franchise record with 26 shots in the second period when Florida mustered only five.

"We weren't there in the first two periods. We made a lot of turnovers," Panthers coach Terry Murray said.

Recalled from the International Hockey League two months ago, Barrie snapped a 1-1 tie with his second goal of the game at 2:58 of the second period.

Ziggy Palffy stole the puck from Florida's Bret Hedican at the blue line and took the first shot, which was stopped by goalie Mike Vernon. Luc Robitaille tipped the puck to Barrie on the left side, and he scored to give the Kings a 2-1 lead.

Vernon played his second game since being acquired from San Jose last week.

"Mike kept us in the game and gave us an opportunity to pull it out," left wing Peter Worrell said.

Florida was penalized for too many players on the ice, which led to the Kings' third goal. Jaroslav Modry scored the power-play goal from inside the left circle after a flurry in front of Vernon at 15:21 of the second.

Barrie tied the game 1-1 on a shot through Vernon's pads at 8:26 of the first period. It was Barrie's first goal in 16 games.

"I knew I had a breakaway," he said. "I just wanted to make sure I didn't go offsides. The guy was kind of hooking me from behind, so I just buried it between the goalie's pads."

The Panthers tied a season low with two shots in the first period. Their second shot produced a power-play goal by Ray Sheppard when the puck bounced in off the glove of goalie Stephane Fiset at 6:06.

"We wanted them to have to chase us," Kings coach Andy Murray said. "We were pretty good and they weren't very good. We played very hard. After two periods we probably should've had the game decided, but Vernon played outstanding."

Robert Svehla made it 3-2 at 11:14 of the third period on Florida's 12th shot. Lance Pitlick missed tying the game moments later when his shot on an open net went wide right.

Glen Murray scored an empty-net goal with 34 seconds left for Los Angeles, which kept Vernon from tying former Kings goalie Rogie Vachon for eighth on the career victory list with 355 wins.

Florida's Ray Whitney received a game misconduct for hitting Marko Tuomainen with the butt end of his stick at 2:12 of the third period.

 


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