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Johnson's goal pivotal in Blues' third-period onslaught

Oct 7, 2007 - 7:47 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Rookie Erik Johnson scored his first NHL goal during a third-period comeback as the St. Louis Blues rallied for a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.

With the game tied at 3-3 midway through the final period, Johnson one-timed a pass from Doug Weight that deflected off Los Angeles defenseman Rob Blake and over the right shoulder of rookie goaltender Jonathan Bernier at 12:43 to give the Blues their first lead.

Johnson's goal followed two by St. Louis within a three-minute stretch that erased a 3-1 deficit. Keith Tkachuk scored on a wrist shot for his second tally of the season at 2:38 of the third, and David Backes deadlocked the contest at 5:53, when he redirected a slap shot from the left faceoff circle by Jay McClement past Bernier.

St. Louis coach Andy Murray liked what he saw from Johnson. "I thought that he does well what he does. He had good movement with the puck," Murray said. "But he is a young player, and he made a couple of mistakes out there."

Jamal Mayers scored at 8:42 of the middle session and added an empty-netter with 48 seconds remaining in the final period for the Blues, who suffered a 3-2 road loss in their season opener at Phoenix on Thursday.

"I felt like we played better than last game," Mayers said. "We got pucks deep, created some turnovers, and kept our feet moving. We fortunately got some calls, and then our power play was able to cash in."

The Kings appeared to be in good shape heading into the fateful third period, mostly on the strength of Dustin Brown's two goals that helped provide a 3-1 advantage.

"When you are up three to one, it becomes a simple game plan that should be easy to follow, but it wasn't followed tonight," said Los Angeles captain Rob Blake. "We didn't get pucks deep in the zone to start with in the third period, which created extra time in our zone. Then, we ran into some penalty trouble."

Los Angeles opened the scoring at 14:20 of the first period, when Brown - who was alone on the left side of the net - converted a cross-crease feed from Anze Kopitar.

Kopitar took a pass from Mike Cammalleri at his own blue line and skated down the right wing, drawing goaltender Manny Legace and a defender to his side. The Slovenian then threaded a pass to Brown, who tapped the puck into the vacant net for his first goal of the season.

After the teams exchanged second-period goals, Brown took advantage of St. Louis defenseman Matt Walker's tripping penalty at 18:56, scoring his second of the game with one second left in the power play to give the Kings a 3-1 advantage.

Kopitar attempted a shot from the slot, which was blocked by defenseman Bryce Salvador. The puck was recovered by Ladislav Nagy, who slid it to Brown for a tap-in.

The tally was surrendered by Hannu Toivonen, who had replaced Legace midway through the second. Legace left the game after tweaking his right knee, which he had surgically repaired in February. Blues coach Murray indicated that "His knee tightened up, and he couldn't go any further. It wasn't a brilliant coaching move."

Murray was able to watch the Los Angeles home debut of his son, Kings left wing Brady Murray, from the opposing bench.

"Yeah, I noticed him on a couple of faceoffs over there," said Andy Murray of his son. "For the most part, he is a skilled offensive player, although they were using him on the fourth line."

"I never really looked over at the bench," Brady Murray remarked. "More importantly, it was my first home game at Staples. I know, if we would have won, I would have brought it up a few times. But I don't know if he will.''

The father-son matchup was only the fourth in NHL history. Rick Wilson coached the Dallas Stars against his son Landon and the Phoenix Coyotes on February 26, for the most-recent time that a father coached his first game against his son.