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Conroy, Cammalleri lead Kings in comeback over Avalanche

Dec 10, 2006 - 6:28 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- In a game filled with plenty of offense, Craig Conroy had the final word for the Los Angeles Kings.

Conroy snapped a third-period tie and Michael Cammalleri scored twice to lead the Kings to their second victory in three meetings with the Colorado Avalanche this season, a 5-4 triumph.

After trailing, 2-0, the Kings knotted the contest three times before Conroy netted the go-ahead tally with 6:12 remaining. The goal gave Los Angeles just its second win in the last five contests.

"Maybe we were just so anxious to get going," Conroy said. "We kind of settled down after the first and we started playing the game and having fun a little bit. It worked out good tonight."

"We just came out and said we're not going to give up and we're going to get right back in this game right away," Kings right wing Tom Kostopoulos said. "It was a good all-around second period to get back in the game."

Conroy scored his fourth of the campaign by knocking the rebound of Jeff Cowan's shot from near the right corner between former Hart and Vezina Trophy winner Jose Theodore's legs.

"I was really happy to see that one go in, especially after the penalties," Conroy said. "I took two penalties, and they ended up scoring on that one in the second, so I wanted to try to redeem myself."

Cammalleri tied the game twice with consecutive goals for Los Angeles. He scored his 11th of the season at 7:04 of the second period and completed the fifth multi-goal game of his career on a power play 4:13 into the third to make it 3-3.

"It was a pretty timely win for us," Cammalleri said. "We are kind of at a crossroads in the season for us here and we were pretty disappointed with our effort the other night (Thursday's 4-1 loss to Nashville).

"It was definitely nice to win a game like that, where it's a see-saw game where you got to really stick to it all night and you really got to work hard."

Antti Laaksonen opened the scoring at 3:25 of the first period for Colorado before Joe Sakic netted his 12th tally of the season and 585th of his career roughly 3 1/2 minutes later. The Avalanche captain is 17th in career goals and 11th in points (1,520).

After Kostopoulos and Cammalleri scored in the second to tie the score, 2-2, Sakic set up John-Michael Liles' seventh goal with 1:13 remaining in the middle session. It was Sakic's 934th assist to tie Al MacInnis for 12th place all-time.

Playing just his second game after missing 27 with a shoulder injury, Pierre Turgeon gave Colorado a 4-3 lead at 5:02 of the third period with his first goal of the season and 512th of his career, matching Hall of Famer Gilbert Perreault for 30th place.

"He (Turgeon) is known to have a scoring touch and he's a great playmaker," Colorado right wing Ian Laperriere said. "We welcome that, especially on our power play. I think that he's going to be a big help."

However, Shawn Thornton answered for the Kings midway through the final period with his fifth tally of the campaign, a wrister from the left faceoff circle that got inside the left goalpost.

"I think these guys are recognizing a little bit more about staying on the same page as a team," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "We've had a number of meetings the last couple of days and we've talked as a team about really trying to narrow down how we have to play to be successful. I like the fact we didn't deviate."

Derek Armstrong collected two assists and Dan Cloutier made 26 saves to raise his record to 6-10-2 for Los Angeles.

Theodore stopped 33 shots for the Avalanche, who have lost four of their last six on the road.

"They played hard but we aren't happy with our play," Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. "We had the lead and the momentum but we let them back in the game. We had two third-period leads and didn't close them out. Obviously, they deserve some credit but we are not pleased with ourselves."