Game Thread: Los Angeles Kings at Calgary Flames 2/27/14 | 9:30pm

[Cobiemonster]

vs.

at

Game Time: 9:30pm EST/7:30pm MST - FS-West/TSN​

KINGS (32-22-6) at FLAMES (22-29-7)

TV: TSN, FS-W

Last 10: Los Angeles 3-7-0; Calgary 6-3-1

Season series: This is the third of five games between the Los Angeles Kings and Calgary Flames. Calgary has won the first two, with each game being decided by one goal.

Big story: Los Angeles has experienced tremendous difficulty scoring goals, but it broke through Wednesday when it rallied with four unanswered goals en route to a 6-4 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center. The Kings had scored eight goals in their previous eight games and 15 in the past 11, going 2-8-1.

"It was great, down by two," Kings defenseman Matt Greene said. "I don't think we can say we've done that a lot of times, especially coming out of the break there and being in a shootout like we were tonight. Obviously, we got to buckle down defensively, especially on the PK. For us to come out and put up six, it's huge for our team. When you're down by two, that's awesome."

Team Scope:

Kings: Anze Kopitar led the charge for Los Angeles on Wednesday, scoring two goals and adding an assist to help Kings rally in Denver. He scored what proved to be the game-winning goal via the power play 3:13 into the third period.

Goaltender Martin Jones stopped all 11 shots he faced in the third. Jones had lost four straight decisions after winning eight in a row to begin his NHL career.

"We could've packed it in easily and blamed it on the Olympic break, 'OK, it's the first game back,'" Kopitar told LA Kings Insider. "Chalk it up with a couple of excuses, but we didn't get down. We believed and we were playing hard for each other, and at the end of the day, the results were good for us."

Flames: Calgary will have a different look Thursday, when goaltender Joni Ortio and forward Markus Granlund make their NHL debuts. The Finnish players have played together in years past and have spent the majority of this season with the Abbotsford Heat of the American Hockey League.

Ortio is the top rookie goaltender in the AHL this season. He went 20-6-0 with a 2.22 goals-against average and .926 save percentage for the Heat. The 22-year-old was Calgary's sixth-round pick (No. 171) at the 2009 NHL Draft.

Granlund, 20, had 23 goals and 21 assists in 50 AHL games. He was the Flames' second-round choice (No. 45) in 2011.

"It's exciting. I'm happy that we get to make our debut at the same time," Ortio told the Flames website. "It's a fun coincidence and it's going to be fun."

Who's hot: Kopitar has eight points (four goals) in the past five games for Los Angeles. Forward Jeff Carter has a goal and four assists during a three-game point streak, and forward Tyler Toffoli has one goal and three assists over the past three games. … Flames forward Matt Stajan has a goal and an assist in the past two games, and forward Joe Colborne has assists in back-to-back games.

Injury report: Kings defenseman Alec Martinez (elbow) is practicing, but did not play Wednesday. … The Flames will be without forwards Lee Stempniak (personal reasons), Brian McGrattan (upper body) and Curtis Glencross (ankle) and goalie Karri Ramo (knee).

Los Angeles Kings at Calgary Flames - 02/27/2014

 

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Maybe the Kings will leave Calgary with Squidy in tow

Should be a good game tonight, Calgary has beaten LA twice in LA this season, the Kings I'm sure are aware of that fact.

 

[Cobiemonster]

Maybe the Kings will leave Calgary with Squidy in tow

Should be a good game tonight, Calgary has beaten LA twice in LA this season, the Kings I'm sure are aware of that fact.

Joni Ortio getting his debut for the Flames tonight - is he the guy everyone in Calgary is hoping can be the number one guy?

 

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Joni Ortio getting his debut for the Flames tonight - is he the guy everyone in Calgary is hoping can be the number one guy?

I believe he played for the same team that Kipper did growing up in Finland. He along with Jon Gillies are the goaltending prospects that Flames fans are pinning their hopes on.

 

[Cobiemonster]

I believe he played for the same team that Kipper did growing up in Finland. He along with Jon Gillies are the goaltending prospects that Flames fans are pinning their hopes on.

I see - hopefully one of them will pan out, they need it

Markus Granlund is making his debut too I see

 

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Yeah, brother of Mikael, he's been having a good season in the AHL, I'm glad to see some of the young kids who have been playing well getting a shot.

 

[Cobiemonster]

Yeah, brother of Mikael, he's been having a good season in the AHL, I'm glad to see some of the young kids who have been playing well getting a shot.

Kings need to come out with energy early in this game and get an early lead so the Flames don't have any shot of being in this game - second night of a back to back for the Kings, I'm sure they got into Calgary real late so they need to have their legs going - Flames are a young team with some young legs so this will be interesting

 

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TSN featuring truculence tonight...

Flames' Burke joins NHL on TSN tonight for Kings-Flames

 

[forty_three]

Hey Cobie - this as good a place to ask as any; Has there been any fallout from Voynov's comments in Sochi?

Think the Kings move him?

 

[Cobiemonster]

Hey Cobie - this as good a place to ask as any; Has there been any fallout from Voynov's comments in Sochi?

Think the Kings move him?

They're not moving him and I haven't seen any rift, but me personally, my opinion of it is that I didn't like what had happened and Slava shouldn't have said that

 

[Cobiemonster]

Go Kings Go!!!!!!!

 

[Cobiemonster]

Brownie! 1-0 Kings!

 

[Cobiemonster]

Kings lead it 1-0 after one period - I like the energy from them - keep this up!

 

[Cobiemonster]

Kings on the penalty kill a lot right now

 

[Cobiemonster]

lol wat how is that a four minute PP - it should be 4 and 2

 

[Cobiemonster]

That wasn't smart, Mr. Colborne

 

[Cobiemonster]

Kings lead 1-0 after two periods - need to kill the rest of the penalty and then get another goal here

 

[davnlaguna]

Triple minor
Got to love Nolan. Not

 

[Cobiemonster]

Dwight King! 2-0 Kings!

 

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Damn you Quick! Good game Kings fans.