It took 12 games, but for the first time in the young season, the Los Angeles Kings finally recorded their first regulation win. To do this, they defeated the Calgary Flames 5-0 to win their second straight at the Staples Center on Saturday night.
Devin Setoguchi scored two of the Kings five goals and had this to say about getting that first regulation win (quotes via Jon Rosen - LA Kings Insider), “Yeah, it was (nice). We were talking about it this morning. We could roll five lines tonight and we could all play. It takes a lot of pressure off the top guys, and like you said, we just rolled four lines and just kept going.”
In the opening 10 minutes of the game, the Calgary Flames had a couple of decent chances to score goals. Two minutes and 16 seconds in, Peter Budaj came up with a big glove save to stop a Matt Stajan wrist shot. Freddie Hamilton then had a shot stopped before a backhanded effort from Troy Brouwer was stopped by Budaj.
LA scores twice in 45 seconds
Then the Kings started to find their feet and take control of play. Their first goal of the night came at the 19:01 mark through Jeff Carter, who scored his third goal of the season. Dwight King raced into the offensive zone before dropping the puck off to Carter. In one swift motion, Carter put his shot past Brian Elliott.
It took all but 45 seconds for Los Angeles to score their second with Setoguchi notching his first of the year. Dustin Brown laid off a pass to Nic Dowd in front of the crease, who forced Elliott to make a good pad save. The rebound, though, fell straight to Setoguchi who spun and doubled the Kings lead before the end of the first period of play.
One of the big things the Kings have been emphasizing lately is getting to the net to put pressure in front of the opposition goaltender, and that is what they did on the second goal. Darryl Sutter had this to say about that, “That's how you score. There's no reward, that is how you score. There's no reward. How many goals are scored without somebody going to the net? Look at Trevor. You don't score if you don't go to the net,” (quotes via Jon Rosen - LA Kings Insider).
Kings continue pouring on
After scoring zero goals in 10 periods of hockey, the Kings have found their rhythm on offense once more. A plethora of Kings have been scoring lately, and tonight, Kyle Clifford scored found his first goal of the season. Nick Shore flew down the boards on the right side of the rink before finding Clifford with an excellent saucer pace. All Clifford had to do was poke the puck past Elliott, and he did just that.
Dustin Brown picked up a loose puck in the slot before forcing Elliott into a save. The rebound though, was there waiting for Setoguchi to find the back of the net, and he obliged. If the 3-0 score flattered the Kings, 4-0 finished off the game, ensuring that the hockey club from Los Angeles won both points.
But they were not quite done yet. Early on in the third and final stanza, the Kings scored their fifth and final goal of the night. Calgary failed to clear their defensive zone as the puck made its way to Drew Doughty. Doughty blasted one from near the blue line before Trevor Lewis deflected the puck that scooted its way through the pads of Elliott.