Anze Kopitar celebrates a Los Angeles goal as Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson and teammate Shawn Horcoff look on. (John Ulan/Canadian Press)The Los Angeles Kings showed why they are among the most defensive teams in the NHL, shutting down the Edmonton Oilers in the third period to preserve a 2-1 road victory on Wednesday night.
Anze Kopitar and Patrick O'Sullivan each had a goal and an assist for Los Angeles (9-9-3), which allowed only 12 Edmonton shots over the final 40 minutes.
The Kings, who lead the league in fewest shots allowed, rebounded from a 6-2 drubbing in Calgary on Tuesday.
"From our perspective it was important to come back from our effort in Calgary," said Kings head coach Terry Murray. "We came out with that kind of an attitude that we had to get some kind of redemption. We had to go out and show ourselves that we were going to dig in and play hard."
Jason LaBarbera finished with 22 saves for his fourth win of the season. Kings rookies Oscar Moller and Drew Doughty contributed assists.
Edmonton (9-10-2) returned after a six-day break but continued to be stifled in their own rink. The Oilers started the season with a spate of road games, but the return home hasn't been sweet — the club is winless in the last five (0-3-2) at Rexall Place.
"We need to be better at home," said Oilers forward Andrew Cogliano. "Since we had all those road games, we have to make up the games we lost on the road here at home. We can't use the excuse that our record is because of all those road games because we are losing our home games now."
Ales Hemsky scored the team's only goal. Dwayne Roloson was solid in net, particularly in the first period where Los Angeles held a big advantage in shots until the Oilers woke up in the last five minutes of the frame.
Roloson made 27 saves.
"We have to make sure we stay positive in this locker room and do the things we have to do to be positive and be able to play well our next game and get a win," said Roloson.
O'Sullivan opened the scoring just under six minutes into the first, driving to the net to follow a rebound from Kopitar's initial shot.
Edmonton outworked the Kings on the boards nearly five minutes later, the play ending with Dustin Penner backhanding a pass to Hemsky in front for the goal.
Roloson continued his strong play in the second, preventing Dustin Brown from putting the Kings ahead.
The turning point of the game may have been when the Oilers squandered successive power-play opportunities, the latter coming after goalie LaBarbera was cited for interference.
The Kings made them pay for their misses at 13:51 of the second. Kopitar converted a cross-ice pass from O'Sullivan for his fifth goal of the season.
Edmonton went 0-for-5 with the man advantage.
LaBarbera botched Ethan Moreau's long shot late in the second, but the puck hopped away from Edmonton sticks to prevent a follow-up shot.
There was little in the way of offence in the third. Sam Gagner had a pair of decent chances for the Oilers, but couldn't convert.
The Oilers lost defenceman Denis Grebeshkov with seven minutes left in the second after he took a puck in the mouth.
The game was the first between the clubs since the trade in late June that saw Lubomir Visnovsky come to Edmonton in exchange for Jarret Stoll and Matt Greene.
Stoll suffered a minor cut on his chin courtesy of former teammate Moreau's stick.
Edmonton return with a pair of weekend afternoon road games, against St. Louis and Dallas.
With files from the Canadian Press
