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Garon impenetrable as Kings blank Blue Jackets

Jan 4, 2007 - 8:01 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Columbus Blue Jackets have not had much road success against the Los Angeles Kings of late. Mathieu Garon made sure the trend continued.

Garon made 26 saves for his second shutout of the season and Michael Cammalleri and defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky each had a goal and an assist as the Kings extended their home unbeaten streak against the Blue Jackets to five games with a 3-0 triumph.

Winless at Los Angeles since March 25, 2003, Columbus was unable to solve Garon, who won for the second time in three outings since returning from a groin injury. The netminder stopped seven shots in the first period, 10 in the second and nine in the third en route to his 10th career blanking.

"I just want to take it one game at a time," Garon said. "As a team, we need these wins. I don't think we need to focus on anything else right now."

Cammalleri gave Garon all the support he needed less than 8 1/2 minutes into the game with his 14th goal of the season.

"When we got the goal in the first period, I just wanted to work with that," Garon said. "I knew I didn't have much room to give up a goal or two. They way we played tonight with the lead was awesome."

"Mathieu played great tonight," Cammalleri said. "He made some huge saves for us."

Agitator Sean Avery doubled Los Angeles' lead midway through the third and Visnovsky capped the scoring with a power-play tally late in the session.

"It was a good game for us," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "We haven't played a lot of games where we are stingy with the chances we've given up. We showed a lot of hard work and commitment."

Alexander Frolov had his three-game goal-scoring streak snapped but registered a pair of assists for the Kings, who won for just the third time in nine contests.

"It's a great feeling to score and have points, but the important thing is winning games," Frolov said. "I think everyone did what he needed to do tonight. It was a team effort to get the win."

Fredrik Norrena made 29 saves for Columbus, which has lost seven of 11.

"They wanted it more and we have to come up with a better effort when we are on a playoff run against a team like that," said Blue Jackets captain Adam Foote, who played his 900th career game. "They took advantage of what we gave them."

Just 8:17 into the first period, Cammalleri swooped in on a rebound in the low slot and backhanded the puck into the net for his first goal in nine games and a 1-0 lead.

"I think it was important for us to keep a 1-0 lead for that long," Cammalleri said. "That's something we are going to need to do if we want to win a lot of games."

After a scoreless middle session, Avery made it a two-goal bulge with his third in five games at 11:12 of the third. The feisty center received a pass from the left faceoff circle by Frolov and beat Norrena from alone in front for his ninth of the campaign.

Just 4:01 later, Visnovsky dug the puck from a crowd in front and lifted it in to provide the final margin.

"I think the game turned in the third period," Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We were down by one and had a little flurry late in the second period. But then we took all the penalties in the third and the game turned. We used our best players far too much on the penalty kill."