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LaBarbera, Kings blank Predators

Oct 24, 2007 - 6:05 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Battling for playing time, Jason LaBarbera showed he might be ready to take over as the Los Angeles Kings' starting goaltender.

LaBarbera registered his second career shutout and Michael Cammalleri tallied twice to take the league lead in goals as the Kings posted a 6-0 triumph over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

Ladislav Nagy scored his first goal of the campaign and set up two others for Los Angeles, which has won three of its last four contests.

LaBarbera, who has been competing with Jean-Sebastien Aubin for starts, turned aside 17 shots for his second consecutive victory. The 27-year-old, who made 26 saves in Friday's 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, stopped four shots in the first period, eight in the second and five in the third.

"We did a great job to support each other," LaBarbera said. "Early on in the year, we just kept turning the puck over in bad, bad spots. We did a good job not doing that tonight. It looks like guys are starting to have more confidence in one another."

Nashville, which has lost six consecutive contests, had just two power plays, including one that was abbreviated. Its only significant scoring chances came in the second period, when LaBarbera denied captain Jason Arnott's point-blank shot and knocked away the puck from J.P. Dumont during a scramble in front of the net.

"We played hard the last two games, but not one of us showed up tonight," Arnott said after the team had a lengthy closed-door meeting. "It was an embarrassing game and we have to go home and look ourselves in the mirror. We have a lot of soul searching to do."

Cammalleri started the scoring at 6:09 of the opening session. Defenseman Rob Blake's shot from the left point was deflected by a defender and collected by Cammalleri, who deked goaltender Chris Mason and swept the puck into the net to give the Kings an early 1-0 lead.

Cammalleri added another tally on the man advantage in the third period to give Los Angeles a 6-0 cushion with 80 seconds left in the game. The 25-year-old Cammalleri, who leads the NHL with 10 goals, has scored in three straight games and five of his last six.

"It feels all that much better when we win and play well," Cammalleri said. "We've started to do a lot of good things. Tonight was a culmination of it. They definitely did not play the way they wanted to. At that same time, we did what we needed to be successful."

Blue-liner Lubomir Visnovsky extended Los Angeles' advantage to 2-0 on a slap shot from the right point, which beat Mason high. Nagy lost control the puck in the slot and Visnovsky raced into the zone and rocketed a quick shot into the far corner with 4:20 remaining in the first period.

Enforcer Raitis Ivanans gave the Kings a 3-0 edge at 7:02 of the second period with his first goal of the season and fifth career. After a turnover in Los Angeles' zone, Ivanans took a centering feed from Derek Armstrong and knocked it past Mason to end his 22-game goalless drought.

"We had all the lines going tonight," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "The biggest goal of the game was the play by Armstrong, that was such a huge play. They had started to get a couple decent shifts, then they made a great play to make it 3-0."

Alexander Frolov ended Mason's night with a goal midway through the middle session. On the power play, Frolov collected the rebound of Nagy's shot and snapped a quick shot that beat Mason high to the near side for a 4-0 bulge.

Dan Ellis replaced Mason, who turned aside just 15 shots, and surrendered Nagy's tally at 9:23 of the third. After receiving a pass from Patrick O'Sullivan, Nagy beat Ellis after multiple whacks at the puck from the doorstep.

Ellis made 14 saves for the Predators, who were blanked for the second straight time and have scored just once in their last three contests.

"We couldn't get anything going. It's going to take all 20 guys in the room," Dumont said. "We have to stop saying it and do it."