• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Kukkonen's late heroics lift Blackhawks past Kings in OT

Feb 2, 2007 - 7:47 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Defenseman Lasse Kukkonen helped the Chicago Blackhawks begin their road trip on a positive note.

Kukkonen scored the game-winning goal just 56 seconds into overtime as the Blackhawks posted a 3-2 triumph over the Los Angeles Kings, who dropped their fifth straight game at home.

All-Star Martin Havlat had a goal and an assist and goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin made 31 saves for Chicago, which ended its three-game losing streak at Los Angeles.

"We stuck with it and it was a hard-fought game," Chicago coach Denis Savard said. "Los Angeles works hard, so we really had to match their intensity the whole game, and we did. We took another step in the right direction and it was a great effort overall."

In the extra session, Kukkonen carried the puck behind the net before a defender knocked it away. Denis Arkhipov picked it up and passed to Kukkonen, who beat netminder Sean Burke with a one-timer fromt he slot for his fifth goal of the season.

"We tried to get it deep and Arkhipov was yelling when I was going by the net," Kukkonen said. "He just made a great pass."

"I kind of saw him get the puck, it was right on his stick and he beat me," Burke said. "By the time I got set, it was already in. We killed off a lot of penalties and gave ourselves a chance. Going into overtime, we had a chance just like they did, but they made the big play."

Chicago was leading, 2-1, in the third period when a fluke play forged a tie. Attempting to clear the puck from the left corner, Blackhawks defenseman Jassen Cullimore accidently shot it into his own net at 7:09.

Kings center Jamie Lundmark, who was acquired from Calgary on Monday, was credited with the goal - his first with the club.

"It was definitely big for me, it's been a rough season so far in the goal department," Lundmark said. "To get one like that was big. Obviously, it was a lucky goal, but I'll take it."

The game was tied at 1-1 in the second period before defenseman Cam Barker set up Jeff Hamilton for a power-play goal with 9:31 left. It was Hamilton's second goal in as many games.

"It's been really frustrating for us all season on the power play," Hamilton said. "We have good players on the unit, but we've never developed any chemistry, probably because Havlat was out for so long. It's nice to get one, especially since we had so many chances in the game."

Alexander Frolov tallied and Burke stopped 29 shots for Los Angeles, which fell to 3-7 in overtime this season and has dropped 10 of 11 games overall.

"I thought we put on the type of effort that we really need and got good chances," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "We had a mistake in execution on the 4-on-4 play at the end of the game, and they took advantage of it."