Jones ties best in-season career start
The official game recap Los Angeles Kings vs Colorado Avalanche.Add another record to the Martin Jones Era.
Jones stopped all three attempts in a shootout, Dustin Brown scored, and the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 Saturday afternoon at Staples Center.
Anze Kopitar snapped a shot past Semyon Varlamov in the second round, and Jones sealed it with a stop on Ryan O'Reilly. The rookie goalie matched Bob Froese's NHL-record 8-0-0 start to a career set in the 1982-83 season. The record for consecutive winning decisions to start a career is nine by Ray Emery, spread from 2002-03 to 2005-06.
Los Angeles is 14-2-3 since goalie Jonathan Quick went out with a groin injury.
The Kings' stellar penalty-killing unit allowed two power-play goals for the first time since Nov. 2. The last was a beauty; O'Reilly roofed a shot over Jones' right shoulder to finish a give-and-go with Matt Duchene to tie it 2-2 with 9:33 left in regulation. Mike Richards was in the penalty box for closing his hand on the puck.
Colorado otherwise could barely penetrate the Los Angeles defense until it pulled to 2-1 late in the second period on a power-play goal by defenseman Erik Johnson. Duchene spun out of the corner and drove to the net before he slid a pass out to Johnson, who one-timed it past Jones' right side at 14:02.
Duchene has four goals and eight assists in six games, but Colorado's top line of Duchene, O'Reilly and Nathan MacKinnon were on the ice for each of Los Angeles' regulation goals. The Avalanche had chances earlier but got no shots on a third-period power play, and Paul Stastny had the puck go off his stick on a feed from Gabriel Landeskog in the second period.
The Kings' top line has been good during this run, and their sustained pressure gave Los Angeles a 1-0 lead in the first period. Jeff Carter put in Drew Doughty's rebound from the slot with 31.3 seconds to go after the Kings pinned the Avalanche in their zone to set up Doughty for a slap shot.
Justin Williams scored his team-leading 12th goal when he batted the puck in midair on a shot that popped out of Varlamov's glove at 5:25 off the second.
-- by Curtis Zupke for NHL.com --
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22/12/2013 - 01:30
