Surging Kings douse Flames

LOS ANGELES—Dustin Brown can see the confidence of champions emerging in the L.A. Kings as they rocket ahead in the Western Conference playoff race.
The Calgary Flames, meanwhile, have fallen as low in the standings as they can go.

Brown scored two goals, and Jonathan Quick made 23 saves, as the surging Kings beat Calgary 3-1 last night for their second win over the Flames in three days.
Brown and Jarret Stoll netted first-period goals before Brown added an empty-netter for the defending Stanley Cup champs, who moved up to third place in the conference with their 11th win in 14 games.
The victory wasn’t exactly beautiful, but the Kings’ workman-like play and sturdy effort pleased their captain.
“When you win the Cup, you have a confidence in your group because you’ve been there,” Brown reasoned.
“It’s just a matter of getting to work every day and doing things right, and we’ve been doing it lately.”
Despite a rough third period dominated by Calgary, the champs finished their five-game homestand with four victories.
With steadily improving play after a slow start to the season, L.A. trails only Chicago and Anaheim in the West race.
L.A. swept its season series with Calgary for just the second time in franchise history and the first time in 13 years.
But the Kings will get little chance to enjoy their achievements during their brutal March schedule featuring 17 games in 31 days.
They hopped right on a plane after the game for a Pacific Division meeting with Phoenix tonight.
“The schedule is hard [so] you’ve got to find different ways to hang in there,” said Kings’ coach Darryl Sutter.
“It means you’re a good hockey team when you do that.
“We’ve found different ways to win games, and that’s what you have to do,” he stressed.
“The schedule does win and lose games for teams.”
Mikael Backlund ruined Quick’s shutout bid with 5:22 left for last-place Calgary, which now has lost six-straight on the road.
Joey MacDonald stopped 19 shots for the Flames, who got outscored 13-3 while losing all three games of their southern California road trip, including a 4-0 blanking by Anaheim last week.
L.A. had routed Calgary 6-2 on Saturday, chasing Miikka Kiprusoff in the process.
“I think we just got outcompeted and outplayed,” said Flames’ captain Jarome Iginla.
“The toll is that we just dropped three games on the trip, and we’ve fallen way back,” he noted.
“But there’s no excuses as far as scheduling or whatever,” Iginla stressed. “We had a chance to come in here and pretty much catch the Kings if we could have pulled these two games out, but it goes the opposite way.”
After Saturday’s loss by Calgary and Sunday’s wins by Colorado, Columbus, and Edmonton, the Flames began the week in 15th place in the West.
The Flames realize they’re running out of time to turn around their season, too.
“When you lose a couple of games in a row, your confidence gets down a little bit and you’re not ready for the next shift, and all of a sudden it’s 2-0,” said Calgary coach Bob Hartley.
“You have to fight through that.”
Boston nipped Ottawa 3-2 (SO) in the only other NHL game last night.