GameTrax: Stats and more
By MATT BEARDMORE
STATS Writer
The Los Angeles Kings are hoping to get a boost with the arrival of Dustin Penner. A lift from newcomer Rostislav Klesla wasn't enough to help the Phoenix Coyotes in their last contest.
Penner is expected to make his Kings debut Thursday night at Staples Center, where Los Angeles will try to pull even with the slumping Coyotes in the standings.
Just hours after signing forward Justin Williams to a four-year extension, the Kings (35-24-4) acquired Penner prior to Monday's trade deadline for defenseman Colten Teubert and a pair of draft picks.
"I think our team deserved this," said general manager Dean Lombardi, referring to the club's 6-1-3 trip last month. "The players drove me to this, going on that road trip and saying ... 'Make us better without taking anybody out of the room.'"
Penner had 21 goals and 39 points for the Oilers this season and could make a dynamic pairing alongside top-line center Anze Kopitar, who leads the team with 42 assists and 62 points.
"If I do get a chance to play with him, obviously he's a big body and I think our styles would blend well together," Penner told the Kings' official website. "We can both hold on to the puck and get pucks to the net."
While Los Angeles is trying to bounce back from a 7-4 loss to Detroit on Monday that ended a three-game winning streak, the Coyotes (33-22-10) are looking to end their longest skid since an 0-4-1 stretch from March 6-14, 2009.
Phoenix dropped its fourth straight Tuesday, 3-2 to Dallas.
Klesla scored a third-period goal in his Coyotes debut, a day after being acquired from Columbus to help fortify Phoenix's defense and struggling penalty-killing unit with Ed Jovanovski sidelined by an orbital-bone fracture. However, the Coyotes surrendered a power-play goal with 4.8 seconds remaining just moments after Phoenix's Ray Whitney had tied the game.
"It's an awful way to lose a game," captain Shane Doan said.
Since a season-high eight-game winning streak, Phoenix has allowed nine power-play goals during its four-game skid.
"That's two games this week we've lost to penalties," said coach Dave Tippett, whose team allowed two power-play goals in a 4-3 shootout loss to Chicago on Sunday. "At some point, we've got to get it, look it straight in the face and take the challenge. We better or it's not a good thing."
The Coyotes have held the Kings to 1 for 13 on the power play in the season series, winning three of four meetings, and killed off all six penalties in their only game at Los Angeles this season in a 2-0 victory Jan. 20.
The Kings, though, are 11-2-3 since that loss and have pulled within two points of their Pacific Division rival. That surge started with a 4-3 victory in Glendale on Jan. 22 as Los Angeles and goaltender Jonathan Quick both ended five-game losing streaks to the Coyotes.
The six goals Quick surrendered Monday, when he was pulled in the third period, were the most he's allowed since being benched in the second of a 6-3 loss at Phoenix on Dec. 29.
Coyotes netminder Ilya Bryzgalov, Penner's teammate with Anaheim from 2005-07, has yielded 11 goals while losing his last three starts. Bryzgalov, though, is 6-0-1 with a 1.55 goals-against average at Staples Center since Phoenix claimed him off waivers early in 2007-08.
Phoenix is 8-2-1 in Los Angeles since the start of that season.
Updated March 3, 2011
