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Sunday, Apr. 9 3:00pm ET
Los Angeles 4, Anaheim 3 | |||||
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BOX SCORE
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) _ Glen Murray tied a career high with his 29th goal on a power play at 1:06 of overtime as the Los Angeles Kings beat the Anaheim Mighty Ducks 4-3 on Sunday, completing their most successful regular season in 10 years. Marko Tuomainen, Bob Corkum and Rob Blake also scored for the Kings, who finished the campaign with a 39-31-12 record and 93 points under rookie head coach Andy Murray _ 24 points more than they had last season under Larry Robinson. The team hasn't done this well since 1990-91, when it had 102 points in Wayne Gretzky's third season with the club. Los Angeles placed fifth in the Western Conference standings _ following an 11th-place finish last year _ and earned a playoff berth for just the second time since losing to Montreal in the 1993 Stanley Cup finals. The Kings will open their first-round series at Detroit and will be looking for their first postseason victory since Game 1 of the '93 finals. Murray, who had 29 goals for the Kings two seasons ago before injuries limited him to 61 games last season, got the puck from Jozef Stumpel, carried into the Anaheim zone and beat Guy Hebert through the pads with a long slapshot. Murray's second game-winner of the season came after Ducks defenseman Oleg Tverdovsky was sent off for high-sticking Craig Johnson. Teemu Selanne's second goal of the game and 33rd of the season tied the score on a power play midway through the third period and Anaheim teammate Paul Kariya scored his 42nd goal. It was the first time Kariya and Selanne scored goals in the same game in their last 18 appearances together since Jan. 31 at Boston, when they did it for the fifth consecutive time. That streak was preceded by a 30-game stretch in which they failed to score in the same game. Despite the efforts of their two All-Stars, the Ducks fell one victory short of matching last season's total of 35 and finishing at the .500 mark for the third time in team's seven-year history. They had only four fewer wins and four fewer losses than the Kings _ but missed the playoffs for the second time in Craig Hartsburg's two seasons as head coach, after going 7-8-4 in their final 19 games. The two Southern California rivals have never gone to the playoffs in the same season since Anaheim entered the league in 1993-94. Kings left wing Luc Robitaille sat out the game to rest up for the playoffs. Robitaille, who missed 10 games in November because of a broken foot, was the Kings' leading scorer with 74 points for the second consecutive season. He finished with 36 goals three fewer than last season. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Los Angeles Clubhouse Anaheim Clubhouse RECAPS Buffalo 1 Washington 1
Los Angeles 4 AUDIO/VIDEO Teemu Selanne feeds Paul Kariya for the goal. avi: 566 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 Marko Tuomainen beats Guy Hebert with the wrist shot. avi: 834 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 |