Adding insult to injury

Flames' first line beats up badly depleted L.A. Kings

By RANDY SPORTAK, CALGARY SUN

LOS ANGELES -- The Jarome Iginla express keeps on rolling.

And with a Gordie Howe hat trick, to boot.

Iginla, whose second-half scoring spree is a carbon copy of his breakout season of a year ago, elevated his dominance a notch by leading the Calgary Flames to a 4-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings last night at Staples Center.

Iginla set up one goal, scored another -- his 19th in 20 games -- and thumped Kings pest Sean Avery to prove he, indeed, has all the tools.

"He's the best player in the league right now," defenceman Bob Boughner said of Iginla.

"I'm not just talking about the goals. I'm talking about his work in the corners, the way he's controlling play."

Coach Darryl Sutter wasn't upset with his superstar dropping the gloves.

"Why not?" Sutter said. "He's a power forward. For this team to go to another level, Iggy's got to go to another level, too. Everybody's got to become more complete players."

With the victory, Calgary concludes its three-game road trip through California with a win, loss and draw.

The injury-riddled Kings have only two wins in eight outings.

The bubble burst for first-year goalie Cristobal Huet, who'd given the floundering Kings something to be excited about as the season winds down.

Calgary, led by Iginla and linemates Craig Conroy and Dave Lowry, showed their dominance against an under-manned Kings squad off the hop and it paid off when they opened the scoring eight minutes into the game.

Seconds after a Kings shot rang off the crossbar, Iginla sent his linemates on a two-on-one break.

Huet stopped Conroy's long shot but Lowry snapped the rebound off the post and in for his fifth goal of the season.

Though Calgary controlled play through most of the early going, the Kings found their form and drew even with just more than three minutes left in the first period.

Rookie Alexander Frolov sent a perfect pass to Jaroslav Modry as the captain went to the slot from his defensive position.

Modry beat Roman Turek with a five-hole shot to make it 1-1.

However, Iginla's tally just past the game's midway point restored Calgary's lead. Lowry's pass from the end boards went into the air off the stick of Kings forward (and former Calgary Hitmen) Jerred Smithson and Iginla simply batted it out of the air, as he was parked outside the crease.

"I've missed a lot of those out of the air but that was a good break," Iginla said.

Blair Betts, called up for this game, set up the insurance goal by stealing the puck from Aaron Miller and feeding Oleg Saprykin in the slot, a pass one-timed past Huet.

"I'm just happy to be on the ice when we scored," said Betts.

"I know my role isn't to put up numbers too often so to get the win is really nice."

Leopold collected his third of the season late in the match to round out the scoring.

Goaltending was the name of the game, though it was more adventurous than any coach would enjoy. Huet surrendered a litany of rebounds and second chances to the Flames but managed to come up with the clutch saves.

Turek had his share of heart-pumping moments, too. Early in the third, Turek stopped Derek Armstrong's long shot but the rebound ended up just out of reach.

Frolov had a golden chance but couldn't lift the puck over the sprawling netminder.

CALGARY FLAMES: 4

LOS ANGELES KINGS: 1

 Source: http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySports/cs.cs-03-19-0075.html