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Malhotra helps Blue Jackets to wild win

Mar 4, 2009 - 4:49 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (Ticker) -- Manny Malhotra recorded two goals and an assist to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a wild, 5-4 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday.

Raffi Torres added a goal and an assist and Jakub Voracek and Jiri Novotny each notched a goal for the Blue Jackets, who matched their offensive output for the previous four games combined.

Rick Nash and Kris Russell each finished with two assists for Columbus.

Jarret Stoll gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal early in the first period before the Blue Jackets exploded, scoring twice in the first and adding another on Malhotra's first goal of the game at the 5:32 mark of the second to push it to 3-1.

"(Malhotra) was a horse tonight," Columbus coach Ken Hitchcock said. "He's been a good player all year for us. He's risen to the occasion. You see it in his play, in his eyes, how much making the playoffs means to him and having success.

"He dragged people into the fight tonight. A lot of guys were tired and he wouldn't let people lie down. His play was exceptional in all three zones and we followed his lead."

Columbus' defense let it down during a two-minutes stretch later in the second.

"We played a great first period and we were just motoring along and Los Angeles seemed to catch wind on that second goal," Hitchcock said. "They picked up the pace and we made mistakes and every mistake seemed to end up in our net."

Teddy Purcell got Los Angeles started with his second goal of the season at the 12:19 mark and Anze Kopitar and Oscar Moller followed within 29 seconds of each other to push the Kings ahead, 4-3, at the 14:14 mark of the second.

"You like the way (we) battled back," Los Angeles coach Terry Murray said. "There's no question, when you get down in the game like that with two teams that have problems with the offensive part of the game, its 4-4 at the end of two. Yeah, I definitely liked the way we came back."

Hitchcock called a timeout to calm Columbus after Los Angeles tied the game.

"Obviously it was a bad little stretch of hockey that we had," Malhotra said. "We started to get sloppy and complacent with the puck, so (Hitchcock) just wanted to reassure us that we had to get back to our game - straight line hockey, getting the pucks in deep. All our goals came from pressure down low, so we had to get back to that style of hockey."

Novotny's second goal of the season tied it with 2:42 left in the second and Malhotra redirected a pass from Rick Nash past Los Angeles goaltender Jon Quick at the 10:16 mark of the third to put Columbus back on top.

"Both (goals) were great jobs by my linemates," Malhotra said. "The first one they did a great job controlling the puck down low, and we've been stressing to our (defensemen) we need pucks to the net. So (Aaron) Rome had a great shot, just a quick release to the net, and I was able to get a stick on it.

"The second goal was, again, the mentality of give the puck to either Kristian (Hueslius) or Nash and get your stick on the ice and go to the net. That's exactly what I did. They made a great tic-tac-toe play and I was fortunate to be on the finishing end of it."

Steve Mason stopped all 10 shots he saw in the final period and finished the night with 22 saves.

"(Mason) made some big saves," Nash said. "Obviously he had a couple hop over his pads. He is still the backbone of this team and the reason we are here."