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Monday, Oct. 4 8:00pm ET
Palffy nets two points vs. Blues | |||||
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BOX SCORE
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Zigmund Palffy is already paying dividends for the Los Angeles Kings.
Palffy, obtained in an offseason trade with the New York Islanders, scored his first goal for the Kings and added an assist as Los Angeles defeated the St. Louis Blues 3-2 Monday night. "What I saw from Ziggy again tonight was his ability to get in behind the other team's defense," said Los Angeles coach Andy Murray. "I'm sure (Blues coach) Joel Quenneville told his guys you've got to be aware of Palffy getting in behind you. But I used to tell guys that on Team Canada all the time and he still did it." After the Blues scored to take a 2-1 lead at 11:19 of the second period, Murray called a timeout. Six seconds later, Palffy tied it when he skated around defenseman Chris Pronger and beat goalie Roman Turek. "We told him to score a goal during that timeout and he did," Murray said with a laugh. "We felt we had to break the momentum a little bit that they were carrying and we had to get smarter. I felt we played a lot better after the timeout." Palffy thought his first goal as a King came at just the right time. "It felt great, because it tied the game and everyone was back on the tracks," Palffy said. "It was an important goal for us." Luc Robitaille scored the go-ahead goal on a breakaway in the third period. The score moved him into sole possession of 22nd place on the career goal-scoring list with 519. Rob Blake also scored for the Kings, and Stephane Fiset made 36 saves as Los Angeles improved to 2-0 on its season-opening, seven-game road trip. It was a rare victory in St. Louis for the Kings, who are 2-9-3 in their last 14 visits to the Kiel Center. "I think that's my first win here," Fiset said. "We talked about it before the game and we said it's a new season, and we have to forget what happened in the past." The Blues were impressed with Fiset. "He's a big goalie and he's strong," said St. Louis left wing Geoff Courtnall. "We didn't bear down on the rebounds we had in front of the net. He was lying down after stopping the first shots and we couldn't put the rebound over him." Pavol Demitra and Michal Handzus scored for the Blues, who fell to 0-2. "We generated a lot of opportunities but we didn't finish them off," Quenneville said. "We're going to start all over in Calgary Wednesday night." Robitaille scored the decisive goal at 14:25 of the third when Blues defenseman Chris McAlpine misplayed the puck at his blue line, allowing Robitaille to break in alone on Turek. Robitaille beat Turek with a wrist shot from between the circles for his second goal of the season. Demitra scored at 8:15 of the second period when he stole a clearing attempt by Kings defenseman Aki Berg in the right circle and blasted it past Fiset. Demitra's goal ended a shutout string for Fiset, who blanked Nashville 2-0 in the Kings' season opener Saturday. The Blues took a 2-1 lead at 11:19 of the second period when Handzus scored off his own rebound. Blake scored the Kings' first goal on a two-man advantage 10:50 into the game. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Los Angeles Clubhouse St. Louis Clubhouse RECAPS Toronto 4 Boston 0
Los Angeles 3 AUDIO/VIDEO   Luc Robitaille sticks the wrist shot.avi: 608 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1   | |||||
