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BOX SCORE
LOS ANGELES (AP) – It appears the road to the Stanley Cup will
travel through Colorado, New Jersey and Dallas. For the Los Angeles
Kings, the road to the playoffs goes through California.
The Kings are in the midst of a 15-game stretch in which they
don't leave the Golden State. Twelve of those games are at home,
where they finally found a way to beat the Nashville Predators.
Los Angeles extended its home-winning streak to a season-best
four games with a 4-1 victory Thursday night.
Philippe Boucher and Glen Murray scored power-play goals, and
Ian Laperriere ended a 16-game goal drought, helping the Kings
close within three points of Edmonton for the eighth and final seed
in the Western Conference playoffs.
"We've got 14 games left, and our power play and
penalty-killing are going to have to do the job," Laperriere said.
"It's hard to gain on teams at this time of the year, but the only
thing we can control is how we play. I know it's a cliche, but we
just have to win, win, win, and not worry about the team in front
of us."
Lubomir Visnovsky had a goal and an assist, and Luc Robitaille
had two assists for the Kings, 6-1-1 since a 1-5 slide.
"We've been playing some good hockey at home as of late, and
it's about time we've done that," defenseman Mattias Norstrom
said. "We underachieved at home earlier this year, but now we're
playing up to a standard that we expect ourselves to play at.
"The only thing we can control is our own fate. If we keep
playing like this, good things will happen."
Patric Kjellberg scored on a power play for the Predators, 4-1
in their previous five road games against the Kings.
Despite getting only 13 shots through the first two periods, Los
Angeles was able to build a 3-1 lead against Mike Dunham and send
him to his fourth loss in five starts.
The Predators, who entered with the fewest penalty minutes per
game in the NHL and the league's fifth-best penalty-killing unit,
fell behind less than two minutes in. Boucher capitalized on Cale
Hulse's high-sticking penalty with the Kings' first shot, a
one-timer from the slot that beat Dunham between the pads from 45
feet.
"We talked about that right from the beginning, but then you're
stuck in the box – which is not the way you want to start a game,"
Hulse said. "We've played pretty well on the road all year. And in
a big game like this, you want to come in and play solid. You don't
want to be down 1-0 after a couple of minutes, because it's tough
to chase a team like this."
Kjellberg tied it 6½ minutes into the first period, converting a
rebound of Drake Berehowsky's shot with one second left on Bryan
Smolinski's penalty. But the Kings regained the lead for good just
14 seconds later with an unassisted goal by Visnovsky, who entered
third in points among rookies.
Visnovsky flipped the puck toward the net from just inside the
blue line, and it got past a screened Dunham. It was the seventh
goal and third game-winner for the 24-year-old defenseman.
Hulse was off for elbowing when Murray got a fortuitous carom
off the skate of Nashville defenseman Karlis Skrastins and
completed the scoring with 7:26 remaining.
Game notes
The Predators outshot the Kings 21-19. It was the third
time Nashville held an opponent to fewer than 20 shots this season
– all in the last nine games. ... With 98 penalty minutes, Hulse is
the second-most penalized Nashville player – two behind Berehowsky.
... Boucher, looking for his third multiple-goal game, was stopped
on a breakaway at 6:13 of the second period. ... Tom Fitzgerald
played in his 800th NHL game and 200th in a row, the longest
consecutive-game streak by a Nashville player. Thirteen Predators
haven't even played in 200 NHL games. ... Predators rookie Marian
Cisar has no goals and three assists in 14 games, after getting
five goals and three assists in his previous six. He ended a streak
of five consecutive games without a shot.
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NHL Scoreboard
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