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Stoll leads charge as Kings edge Ducks

Oct 15, 2008 - 6:21 AM By John Reger PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The rivalry has only had 15 years to develop, but the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks play like they have generations of animosity between the two.

Jarrett Stoll scored a power-play goal and added an assist to lead the Kings to a 6-3 victory over the Ducks on Tuesday.

After spending the past five seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, Stoll snapped a 2-2 tie with 43 seconds left in the second period for his first goal as a member of the Kings (1-2-0), who have not lost three straight games in regulation to start a season since 1969-70.

"It's good to get one and get it under my belt, but more importantly, we got our first win," Stoll said. "We played a solid game, a little running around at the end, but we stuck to it and were very composed. They took a little too many penalties than they would like, and we took advantage of them. It was a great team effort for our first win."

Both teams entered the game winless, with each losing its first two contests of the season. The Kings came out more physical, but the Ducks (0-3-0) wasted little time scoring as Brian Sutherby fired a wrist shot past goaltender Jason LaBarbera 1:46 into the first.

Two seconds after the tally, the first of several altercations took place when Anaheim's George Parros squared off with Los Angeles' Raitis Ivanans in a battle of heavyweights.

The Ducks took a 2-0 lead at 7:12, when Samuel Pahlsson feathered a backhand pass from behind the net to Todd Marchant, who slapped it past LaBarbera for his first goal of the season.

"It wasn't the start we were looking for, but we battled," LaBarbera said. "That was the biggest thing. I knew I had a lot of game left. I just had to dig my heels in and battle. I knew we were going to have a good game, so I knew I had to battle because I didn't want to be the guy who blew it for everyone."

Wayne Simmonds got Los Angeles on the scoreboard with his first career goal just 32 seconds later.

"I think what turned the game around for us was being able to respond with our goal," said Terry Murray, who notched his first win as the Kings' coach. "Right after they scored their second goal, about 30 seconds later coming down, Simmonds gets his first goal in the NHL. That was huge."

Patrick O'Sullivan forged a tie with 5:40 left in the second session.

"I'm real excited how the team is playing," O'Sullivan said. "We had a good game against a pretty good team. We've got to keep doing that. There were times last year when everyone wasn't on the same page. We realize we are young, but we are doing things we didn't do last year."

After Stoll's tally, it did not take long for the Kings to pad their lead. Just 51 seconds into the third period, Matt Moulson took a pass from captain Dustin Brown and snapped a shot over the left shoulder of netminder Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who finished with 17 saves.

"I don't think that we're working anywhere near hard enough to accomplish some of the things we've set out to do, and we're straight-legged in a lot of situations," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "We're swinging away and we're not getting involved on the work-ethic side of the game. They're not working in the tough areas to get enough done."

Defenseman Tom Preissing added a power-play tally 10 minutes later to give the Kings a three-goal cushion.

"It's a game of penalty kills and power plays, so you can't win by being in the box," Giguere said. "And I'm guilty of it tonight. I took a bad (penalty), and it kind of got their game going."

Teemu Selanne cut the deficit to 5-3 with 4:29 remaining, but Alexander Frolov capped the scoring with an empty-netter just over three minutes later to secure the victory.

"We need to be playing a lot better than we are," Ducks captain Scott Niedermayer said. "We can't afford to be leaving points behind like we are right now.

"We're not feeling real good about where we're sitting right now and about how we've gone about it. We are not competing as hard as we need to and how we have done in the past to have success. We are working in spurts, but it has to be every shift."

Michal Handzus and Brown recorded two assists apiece and LaBarbera turned aside 23 shots.

"It's nice to see us score some goals," Murray said. "That's where confidence comes from and that's where you can build a team a lot faster, when you have that kind of result."