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Michalek scores two goals as Sharks crown Kings

Dec 27, 2007 - 7:12 AM By Niall Adler PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Coming into another team's building doesn't seem to bother the San Jose Sharks.

Milan Michalek scored two goals and Joe Pavelski added another Wednesday night as the Sharks snapped a three-game losing skid with a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings, who have now lost eight games in a row.

"It's good to get two points," Sharks goaltender Evgeni Nabokov said. "It's going to be a tough road trip and it's a good start. Our penalty kill unit did a (heck) of a job. That's all we can ask out of them. To have them play five and three minutes is a lot of work for them."

San Jose tallied a pair of goals in the first period just over three minutes apart and Nabokov made 29 saves as the team continued its excellent play on the road, posting an NHL-best 13-3-2 record away from the Shark Tank.

"You always want to be a good road team," Nabokov said. "On the road we find a way to win. Sometimes you play ugly, but you find a way to win."

Holding a 2-1 advantage, the Sharks were forced to kill off a five-minute major penalty after defenseman Craig Rivet was ejected from the game at 17:20 in the second period for fighting with Ladislav Nagy.

"This is typical of a road game," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "Take an early lead and see how it goes. The penalties shot us in the foot, but we were able to come out of it. We still got out of the 4-on-3 part ... it's scary to have to kill 2:20 on fresh ice (in the third period)."

After an impressive penalty kill, Michalek gave San Jose a 3-1 edge at 3:24 of the final session when he deflected Joe Thornton's shot past goaltender Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who replaced Jason LaBarbera after he surrendered the two early goals.

"We scored soon after and that killed them," Sharks center Torrey Mitchell said. "Our penalty kills have been pretty good on the road for us. After two and a half minutes (in the second) we got a break in between and that got our energy back to begin the third."

LaBarbera lasted just over 12 minutes, making just seven saves, while Aubin stopped 21 of the 22 shots he faced.

Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky's slap shot went over the right shoulder of Nabokov while on the power play to cut the deficit to 3-2 with just 27.2 ticks left in the contest.

Michalek gave the Sharks an early lead when he opened the scoring at 9:02 of the first period, receiving a pass from blue-liner Sandis Ozolinsh at the right point and unleashing a one-timer past LaBarbera.

It was the 23-year-old Czech's seventh career multi-goal game and 12th tally of the season.

"I just came back to (Ozolinsh), he gave me the puck and I shot it," Michalek said. "The second one is what we work on in practice. Shoot it and take the shot."

Pavelski doubled San Jose's lead when he found the upper right corner at 12:17 of the first period.

Kings captain Rob Blake halved the deficit with a power-play goal at 6:18 of the second period, taking a slap shot from the right point to make it 2-1.

"Tonight our special teams were very good but unfortunately it didn't make the difference in tonight's game because they scored all the goals five-on-five," said Kings coach Marc Crawford.