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LaBarbera, Brown lead Kings over Blues

Oct 25, 2008 - 4:25 AM ST. LOUIS (Ticker) -- After Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin provided bad luck for the Philadelphia Flyers earlier in the season, it may not have been coincidental that the St. Louis Blues seemingly felt a similar affect during her visit on Friday.

Jason LaBarbera made 15 saves and captain Dustin Brown notched a goal and an assist as the Los Angeles Kings recorded a 4-0 victory over the Blues.

Palin dropped the ceremonial first puck prior to an NHL game for the second time this month, the first being in Philadelphia on October 11. After the Alaskan governor's appearance, the Flyers went winless in their first six games of the season.

Entering with four wins in five games, the Blues welcomed Palin and her family with good spirits, but LaBarbera greeted St. Louis rudely. The 28-year-old made eight saves in the first period, three in the second and four in the third en route to his first shutout of the season and third career for Los Angeles, which has won three of four.

"Our team played great for 60 minutes," LaBarbera said. "It seemed like we didn't give them any room, and when we did, we were there to pick each other up. We just looked really good tonight."

"When you're on the road, it's always difficult to find wins," Kings coach Terry Murray said. "Tonight, I thought that our team played well and smart. We scored a couple of goals at the right time."

Murray also was impressed with LaBarbera's effort.

"LaBarbera played real well and the team played real well in front of him," Murray said. "But when he was called on, he came up with the big stops. It's good to see him get a shutout early in the season like this, and it's always good for confidence."

Defenseman Kyle Quincey opened the scoring, beating goaltender Manny Legace with a wrist shot with 7:39 left in the first. Patrick O'Sullivan tallied 5 1/2 minutes later after forcing a turnover at mid-ice and firing a wrister past the glove of Legace, who left after the session with a hip injury.

The 35-year-old Legace injured his hip prior to the game by slipping on the carpet Palin used to get to center ice.

"I went to go step on the ice and the (security guard) says, 'Watch the carpet,'" Legace said. "He had his foot there holding it, so I figured it would be safe to step on it if he's holding it and the other end is secure. As soon as I went to step down, he took his foot off the carpet, and the carpet just shot out and my leg kept going, and my other one was still on the bench. I felt the pull right away.

"I was hoping it would just go away. It wouldn't have been fair to (backup goaltender Ben Bishop) to just come out right then, so I just tried to battle through it. It was just getting worse as the period went on. I should have come out. I let the team down and gave up two goals. I strained my hip flexor."

Making his NHL debut, Bishop replaced Legace and made nine of his 15 saves in the scoreless second session. Legace stopped 10 of the 12 shots he faced before leaving.

"They played very well and we played poorly, and that's often the result," Blues coach Andy Murray said. "Poor decisions, inability to make passes that needed to be made. Our opponents did a great job of getting sticks in lanes, and we didn't make decisions to avoid those. Ultimately, it comes down to effort."

However, Jarret Stoll solved Bishop with his second goal of the season early in the third. After St. Louis' Keith Tkachuk was stripped of the puck at his own blue line, Stoll grabbed the rebound of Brown's shot and beat Bishop with a wrister at 3:32.

Brown capped the scoring with 9:56 remaining, taking advantage of yet another turnover by the Blues and closing in on Bishop before firing a shot into the left side of the net.

"It's our second road game of the year, and we want to establish good habits on the road," Brown said. "And I think we did that tonight. I think we played really well defensively."

Tkachuk - who entered second in the NHL with seven goals and first with five power-play tallies - was held scoreless, ending his six-game points streak.