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Garon shines in relief role as Kings top Ducks

Mar 19, 2007 - 5:32 AM ANAHEIM, California (Ticker) -- Although he did not start in goal, Mathieu Garon became a stabilizing force for the Los Angeles Kings.

Garon made 24 saves after replacing starter Sean Burke in the first period and Patrick O'Sullivan snapped a tie as the Kings rallied for a 5-3 triumph over the Anaheim Ducks.

Los Angeles defeated Anaheim for the third consecutive time by winning just its 10th road contest in 35 outings. Only the Calgary Flames and the Florida Panthers have fewer victories away from home this season.

"They're a great team and you can always tell how good a team is by how happy the other team is to beat them, and we were very happy to beat them tonight," Kings coach Marc Crawford said.

After Burke yielded goals to Travis Moen and Dustin Penner on Anaheim's first two shots in 4:22, Garon relieved and yielded just a second-period tally to Teemu Selanne, the league's No. 2 goal scorer (44).

"I felt really bad for Sean because he (has) played so well for us," Crawford said. "I made the decision to change the momentum and got Matt in there. Unfortunately, it wasn't Sean's night and Matt came in there and played great."

The Kings trailed 3-2 when Garon stopped Selanne's penalty shot attempt in the second period. The pad save inspired Los Angeles, which scored the final three goals.

"I wanted to get it high enough, but I didn't," Selanne said. "What are you going to do? I'm expecting to score on it. I'm usually pretty good on breakaways. Maybe I need somebody chasing me."

Defenseman Rob Blake, who caused the penalty shot by pulling Selanne down on a mini-breakaway, forged a 3-3 tie with 2:27 left of the second period.

O'Sullivan netted his first goal in 21 games just 92 seconds later with a chip shot from the slot inside the right goalpost past netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

"I think I've been playing a lot better lately and I feel a lot more comfortable out there," O'Sullivan said. "I know what's expected of me and there's no if ands or buts about that. My job is to go out there and create some energy. When I do that I think the points are starting to come."

"We've all known that he's got really good hands and he's got a very good mind," Crawford said. "We've been after him to be more on top of the play and be a guy that gets himself in position to use his great hands and his great head."

Noah Clarke added a shorthanded insurance tally at 44 seconds of the third period and Michael Cammalleri recorded his fifth multi-goal game of the season for Los Angeles.

"Whenever you're playing a top team and you give them some respect that's well-deserved, there's always that fear of not playing well," Cammalleri said. "I know that when we prepare for these guys, we know there is a lot of confidence. If we're not at our best, we know what could happen to us."

Giguere stopped 24 shots for the Ducks (43-17-12), who remain two points behind the Nashville Predators (47-20-56) for the top spot in the Western Conference.

"This was a tough one to swallow after the game," Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said. "Our lack of execution, our lost battles, the 44 turnovers after two periods. There's no hiding from these facts."

Despite the loss, Anaheim finished 6-1-1 on its eight-game homestand and is 25-6-8 at the Honda Center.

"We've played well this homestand," Ducks captain Scott Nidermayer said. "We're a little bit greedy. We wanted to finish off with a better effort than we did tonight. We've got some tough tests ahead of us and those games are going to take our best effort."