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Toronto rallies past Kings

Tue 2nd, December 2008

Los Angeles, CA (Sports Network) - Matt Stajan and Mikhail Grabovski scored power play goals 81 seconds apart early in the third period, rallying Toronto to a 3-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Jeff Finger added an empty-net goal and Vesa Toskala came up huge by stopping 32 shots, including all 26 he faced over the final two periods.

"Vesa kept us in there and I think you give him a lot of credit there for the whole game," said Finger. "He gave us some time to get our legs back and he kind of answered in the second and third."

The Maple Leafs had lost five in a row before making a change at general manager, and they've since won two straight with Brian Burke as the new GM. Also, Toronto won for the first time at the Staples Center. The Maple Leafs played there for only the third time since it opened. Their previous win in Los Angeles came March 12, 1998 at the Great Western Forum.

"The early part of the game was a matter of us going post to post and finding our legs," said Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson. "The Kings were all over, but once we settled down we got back into our 'throw the puck back into the net' kind of a game and obviously we got some huge saves and with goaltending like that you have a very good chance of winning."

Alexander Frolov scored on LA's first shot of the game, but the Kings had a two-game win streak broken. Jason LaBarbera made 27 saves.

LaBarbera stopped all 17 shots he faced over the first two periods, but the Kings were hurt by tripping penalties to Sean O'Donnell and Dustin Brown in the first two minutes of the third.

"It's tough when you take two penalties right away," said LaBarbera. "We talked about that right before we went out there; try to keep your sticks on you because we were the ones who got two calls there at the end of the second. Unfortunately it went against us and they scored two goals."

Toronto tied the game while on a two-man advantage. Niklas Hagman shot the puck from the right side of the net. The disc deflected high into the air and bounced in the crease. Stajan barely got his stick on the puck and it trickled into the net at the 2:09 mark.

Los Angeles then turned the puck over in its own end. John Mitchell had the puck in the right corner and delivered a pass to Grabovski in front for a successful deflection.

The Toronto netminder stopped a close-in try from Brad Richardson with 4 1/2 minutes left, although Richardson didn't get much on the shot.

The Kings pulled LaBarbera with over a minute left. Matt Greene's shot from the high slot with nearly 45 seconds left was deflected wide of the net.

Finger then iced the victory with 11 seconds remaining.

"To go into the third period up 1-0 and end up down two men so quickly, it was unfortunate," said Kings coach Terry Murray. "The game was going pretty well. Both teams worked hard, battled hard, some great opportunities at both ends. I think both goaltenders were tremendous tonight. It's unfortunate that it ends the way it did on a 5-on-3. We had our opportunity later and we weren't able to get much generated to get an opportunity to tie the game up."

Just after the game started, Frolov was sent on a breakaway off a pass from Greene and deposited a backhander over the right pad of Toskala with only 57 seconds expired.

Game Notes

Frolov has scored in four of the last five games...Toskala is 7-2 lifetime against the Kings...Toronto started a three-game western road trip with contests at San Jose and Phoenix upcoming...Frolov has a team-leading nine goals...The Kings were 0-for-4 on the power play, while the Leafs were 2-for-5.