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Saturday, Nov. 6 10:30pm ET
Hobbled Kings can't handle Flyers | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The teams with the top two power plays met and when it was over, the Los Angeles Kings demonstrated why theirs will be suffering over the next several weeks. The Philadelphia Flyers killed off two shorthanded situations in the final eight minutes and escaped with a 5-3 victory on Saturday night. But injuries to Luc Robitaille and Jozef Stumpel have suddenly reduced the Kings' power play. "I think our power play can still be effective," general manager Dave Taylor insisted. "Certainly we'll miss these two guys and it's not easy to replace them, but the second unit has been pretty dangerous, too." Eric Desjardins scored the go-ahead goal early in the second period, and Mikael Andersson and John LeClair added goals for the Flyers. Desjardins and Eric Lindros each had two assists, Mark Recchi connected on a power play goal and Mark Greig also scored for the Flyers, who are 8-1-1 since starting the season 0-4-2. "Hopefully we'll keep the confidence going because we've got everybody playing with a lot of steam out there," Flyers goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck said. Craig Johnson, Marko Tuomainen and Ziggy Palffy scored for the Kings, whose six-game unbeaten streak ended in front of their second sellout crowd at Staples Center. Playing their first game without Robitaille and Stumpel -- two-thirds of their top-scoring line -- Los Angeles was outshot 23-5 during the first 33 minutes of the game. Robitaille is expected to miss 2-6 weeks with a broken left foot. Stumpel, who went onto the injured list Saturday, is expected to undergo abdominal surgery on Monday. The Kings were tied at 2-2 after the first period despite getting outshot 14-4. But goaltender Stephane Fiset, playing his first game since signing a three-year, $7 million contract extension on Thursday, stopped only three of the first five shots he faced in the second period. Desjardins and Greig scored less than four minutes apart, giving the Atlantic Division-leading Flyers a 4-2 lead they would not relinquish. Desjardins got his fifth goal on a slapshot from the right point. Greig then slapped his third goal of the season through Fiset's pads from the middle of the right circle. "They just took it to us," Johnson said. "They're strong, they're physical, they're big, and they clog up the neutral zone. They play a great neutral zone trap and we played right into their hands. They kept intercepting the pucks and dumping them in. It seemed like the play was constantly in our end for the first two periods." The Kings tied the score at 2 with 1:50 left in the opening period on Tuomainen's power play goal. He one-timed a cross-ice pass from Palffy through Vanbiesbrouck's pads. Johnson opened the scoring at the 3:46 mark with his first goal of the season, but Anderson responded with his first goal of the year. Recchi put Philadelphia ahead 2-1 when he converted a rebound of Desjardins' slapshot from the point at 8:45 of the first period. LeClair scored his fifth goal in four games and ninth of the season 75 seconds after the second intermission for a 5-2 cushion. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Philadelphia Clubhouse Los Angeles Clubhouse First-place Kings lose top scorer Robitaille 2-6 weeks
Surgery to sideline Kings' Stumpel for 8-10 weeks
RECAPS Boston 4 Atlanta 2
Philadelphia 5
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