Seeing the confidence in his teammates is fuelling Kings goaltender Jason LaBarbera, who propelled Los Angeles to a fourth straight home win on Saturday night.

He made 15 of his 34 saves in the third period to lead the Kings to a 4-1 triumph over the visiting Edmonton Oilers, who have one win in their last eight starts.

Kings goalie Jason LaBarbera makes one of his 34 saves against Edmonton.
(Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press)

Los Angeles evened its record at 6-6-0 after losing six of eight games to start the NHL season.

“The biggest thing [about the slow start] was we had a lot of new faces,” LaBarbera told Scott Oake and Kelly Hrudey of Hockey Night in Canada. “Everybody didn’t have confidence.

“Now, I can see it in their faces, the confidence in each other [and] the confidence in themselves.”

Second-year centre Patrick O’Sullivan answered Jarret Stoll’s first-period power-play goal with the first of his two scores before the intermission.

Ladislav Nagy and Anze Kopitar made it a 3-1 through 40 minutes, before O’Sullivan fired his third goal of the season late in the third in support of LaBarbera, who has assumed the starting job in Los Angeles.

During the win streak, he has allowed only four goals and faced 110 shots.

“Early in the season I struggled a bit but I just kept working at it,” said LaBarbera, who played 62 games last season for the Kings’ American Hockey League affiliate in Manchester. “This is what you play for. Getting an opportunity [to be a starter in the NHL] is what you dream about. Hopefully we can keep it going.

“For me, I just have to keep playing the way I’m playing. I have to keep the same attitude and approach and it seems to be working now.”

Nagy put Los Angeles ahead 2-1 at 12:21 of the second with the teams skating 4-on-4. He got his stick in the way of an attempted clearing pass by defenceman Tom Gilbert in the left corner of the Edmonton zone, caught up with the bouncing puck and sent a short backhander past goalie Dwayne Roloson’s stick.

“Our team has a lot of speed,” O’Sullivan said. “So if we’re able to get in to forecheck and cause some disturbance with our puck movement, we’ve got some offensive guys who can capitalize on those chances. A perfect example was Nags’ goal.”

O’Sullivan completed the scoring with 3:45 remaining in the third period. He fanned on a cross-ice feed from Kyle Calder near the crease, but kept his focus and did a complete spin with the puck before backhanding it into a wide-open net from a nearly impossible angle with Roloson out of position.

“That was basically luck,” O’Sullivan said. “I missed the first opportunity and I was just trying to get it back toward the net. Luckily, it went in. I’ve never done that before, not even in practice.”

The Oilers, who came in an NHL-worst 2-for-40 on the power play, opened the scoring with 3:20 left in the first period while Kings centre Michael Handzus was off for holding Dustin Penner.

Stoll beat LaBarbera with a one-timer from the middle of the left circle after Ales Hemsky made a cross-ice pass from the right boards.

But Edmonton’s lead lasted only 90 seconds. O’Sullivan chipped the puck past Oilers defenceman Denis Grebeshkov at the left point in the Edmonton zone, bolted the other way and beat Roloson with a 20-foot slapshot that broke off the goalie’s leg pad.

“There’s nothing more frustrating than having an offensive-zone faceoff — and seven seconds later dig the puck out of your own net,” Oilers coach Craig MacTavish said. “The margin of error is too fine without self-destructing in those situations.

“We’ve got to elevate our game and start turning these games where we play pretty well and lose into wins.”

Edmonton wraps up its two-game road trip in Anaheim Sunday against the winless-in-three Ducks.

With files from the Associated PressContinue Article

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Tags: LaBarbera, leads, Kings, straight, victory

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Klaus Roe
Filed under: Fun and Games