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Frolov, Kopitar propel Kings to first win of season

Oct 8, 2006 - 5:19 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Alexander Frolov and rookie Anze Kopitar would not allow the St. Louis Blues to spoil the Los Angeles Kings' home opener.

Frolov had a goal and an assist and Kopitar set up three tallies as the Kings posted their first win of the season, a 4-1 victory over the Blues.

After setting up defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky's power-play goal in the first period, Frolov scored his first of the season at 16:11 of the middle session to snap a 1-1 tie.

The 11th overall pick in 2005, Kopitar assisted on both of those tallies in addition to blue-liner Brent Sopel's goal late in the third period. It was an impressive encore for the 19-year-old Kopitar, who scored twice in the Kings' season-opening 4-3 loss to Anaheim on Friday.

"Well I certainly feel comfortable on the ice," Kopitar said. "I don't have any problems with the small rink or the speed of the game. I was here last year and it is a lot easier than last and I'm just looking forward to the next game."

"(Kopitar's) fitting in very nicely," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "He's a big time talent, there's no doubt about that. ... You tell him something once and he goes out and does it exactly the way you want. He's big and he's strong. (Frolov) and him have supported each other real well and I can see that there is some chemistry between them."

Mathieu Garon made 35 saves and Michael Cammalleri also tallied for Los Angeles, which went 1-for-10 on the man advantage but still won its fifth straight meeting with St. Louis.

"It was a very big (game)," Crawford said. "I thought tonight when the game was on the line, we jumped right on them."

"I think if we keep on playing like that then certainly we will be successful," Garon said.

Manny Legace made several outstanding stops en route to 26 saves and Martin Rucinsky scored the lone goal for the Blues, who were 1-for-8 with the extra skater.

"They came off strong and they played very well," Legace said. "We had a poor first period and then we came out and had a great second period. Then they took the wind right out of our sails and it was over from there."