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Cammalleri's fluke goal helps Kings in comeback win

Jan 7, 2007 - 7:37 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Michael Cammalleri will take goals any way he can get them.

Cammalleri scored a fluke goal with just 1:55 left in the third period to give the Los Angeles Kings a 4-2 comeback victory over the Detroit Red Wings.

With the game tied and Los Angeles on the power play, Cammalleri took a shot from an extremely sharp angle on the right side. The puck deflected off defenseman Danny Markov's stick past goaltender Chris Osgood for a 3-2 lead.

"I was looking for a shot first when Anze (Kopitar) passed it to me but I knew that the guy was in my lane," Cammalleri said. "So, I stopped and passed it down, and it ended up being in the back of the net."

"We were shorthanded back-to-back there and the guys were getting tired," Osgood said. "I mean Markov has to make a play on it. He can't let it go through, it just caromed perfectly. But if he misses it, the guy is going to score back door with an empty net. That's what happens when you take penalties."

Defensemen Rob Blake and Lubomir Visnovsky and agitator Sean Avery also scored for Los Angeles, which rallied from a 2-0 deficit.

After Visnovsky got the Kings on the board at 8:40 of the second period, Blake scored less than two minutes later, when he pounced on a loose puck and flipped it over Osgood's glove to tie the game.

"I thought that the first goal was a huge goal for us, because it got us back into the game," Los Angeles coach Marc Crawford said. "I give our guys a lot of credit, they have a lot of character, and they showed that character tonight. Visnovsky's goal seemed to only inspire our team, but also our fans. They are a big part of this win."

Avery clinched the win with an empty-net goal.

Mikael Samuelsson and Kris Draper scored for Detroit, which also squandered a 3-0 lead Thursday at San Jose en route to a 9-4 setback.

"I thought our team played hard and I thought their team played hard," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said. "They were able to shoot it off Markov in the end. I didn't like the first goal, and then that kind of got them going. I thought we got settled down and playing again, but it obviously wasn't enough."