Kings 6, Coyotes 1

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LOS ANGELES - Coyotes captain Shane Doan set a personal mark for goals scored in one season on Saturday night in a 6-1 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Staples Center.

Doan’s 31st goal pulled Phoenix to within 2-1 at 2:48 of the second period. It was an unassisted goal, but rookie Kyle Turris worked hard to keep the puck in the Kings zone, and Doan eventually gained control of it, spun and wristed the puck past Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick.

"You always want to be trying to get better and improve, and obviously I had never gotten 31 before so it's good to get that one, but it was a pretty disappointing night," Doan said. "...I would definitely take 21 goals (instead) and be in the playoffs than 31 and out."

Trailing 2-1, Phoenix had two great chances to tie the score but couldn’t. Coyotes forward Petr Prucha fired a shot off the crossbar during a power play and center Matthew Lombardi was stoned by Quick on a breakaway as the Coyotes turned up the offensive pressure in the middle period.

Less than a minute after Lombardi’s unsuccessful breakaway, Kings top goal scorer Alexander Frolov, who missed the previous five games because of a groin injury, made the score 3-1 when he tapped a pass from Justin Williams into the Phoenix net to cap a wild scrum in front of Coyotes rookie goalie Al Montoya.

Los Angeles, which beat the Coyotes for just the second time in six tries this season, added three cosmetic goals in the third period. The teams combined for 38 penalty minutes in the final 20 minutes as tempers flared, especially in the waning moments.

"We had some chances to tie it up, but we just kind of let it slip," Lombardi said. "And obviously in the third period the Kings took advantage of our mistakes and they buried us from there."

Kings center Brian Boyle scored twice to lead Los Angeles to a 2-0 edge after the first 20 minutes. Boyle entered the game with just two goals in 23 games this season. He matched that output within an eight-minute span helped both times by sloppy puckhandling by the Coyotes deep in their zone.

Boyle scored his first goal at 7:02 after Coyotes center Viktor Tikhonov turned the puck over in the left corner. Boyle gathered it, skated in on Montoya and tucked the puck between Montoya’s pads.

Boyle made the score 2-0 with 5:08 left in the first period after Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle lost control of the puck near the Phoenix net.

"It's tough for a young (goalie), their team came out pretty hard tonight," Coyotes Head Coach Wayne Gretzky said. "They were moving their feet and were physical early in the game. We gave the puck away twice and all of a sudden it was 2-0."

NOTES

• Doan’s previous high for goals in one season was 30 in 2005-06.

• Coyotes forward Scottie Upshall had four shots on goal and four hits.

• Montoya, who stopped 43 of 44 shots in his first two NHL starts, finished with 26 saves.

• Coyotes defenseman Ed Jovanovski appeared in his 900th NHL game.

• Coyotes defenseman Zbynek Michalek added six more blocked shots to his league-leading total (262).

• The Kings have killed off 21 straight penalties against Phoenix.

• The Coyotes scratched forwards Martin Hanzal, Nigel Dawes, Todd Fedoruk, Enver Lisin and defenseman Dmitri Kalinin.

• The five Kings players who have had their numbers retired - Gretzky, Rogie Vachon, Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor, and Luc Robitaille - appeared on the ice together for the first time as the team paid tribute to Lou McClary, the team's director of security, in a pregame ceremony.
 

Justin Williams Brian Boyle Anze Kopitar