Kings at Minnesota: a lineup change and a 3-0 lead -- wowza

Sports Columnist

Dec. 31, 2009 5:53 PM PT

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Greetings from frigid St. Paul, Minn., home of the best wild rice soup in the world.

The Kings got to town after 2 a.m. after flying here from Calgary and didn’t have a morning skate. Instead, they had a meeting and Coach Terry Murray went over video of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Flames -- and what he saw led him to bench right wing Teddy Purcell, he of the one-goal-in-34-games scoring pace.

Dustin Brown started on the right side on the top line, with Ryan Smyth and Anze Kopitar. Oscar Moller, coming off a fine game at Calgary, somehow ended up on the fourth line with Raitis Ivanans and Peter Harrold and deserved a better fate than that.

The line of Scott Parse, Brad Richardson and Wayne Simmondsproduced the Kings’ first goal, at 6:35 of the first period. Defenseman Davis Drewiske, who grew up in Hudson, Wis., just over the Wisconsin-Minnesota border, drew a cheer with an assist on that goal. He got it for throwing the puck toward the net from the left side, creating a rebound that Simmonds and Richardson both whacked at. Richardson scored it, his fifth goal this season. Drewiske had about 200 people from his hometown at the game and the assist was a nice thank-you for their effort.

The Kings extended their lead to 2-0 at 15:49 with a display of persistence. WingerBrandon Segalpassed to Michal Handzus, who centered it to Alexander Frolov and put him alone in front of goaltender Niklas Backstrom. The Wild goalie poked it away, but Frolov regained it and took a shot that caromed off a Minnesota defenseman and back to Frolov -- who didn’t miss on that unexpected bonus chance. Segal’s assist was his first NHL point.

The game turned into a veritable goalfest, with the Kings building a 3-0 lead on their first power-play goal in 23 chances. Drew Doughty kept in an attempted clearing pass by the Wild and took a long shot that was tipped by Ryan Smyth for his first goal since Nov. 11, or before the rib injury that took him out of the lineup for nearly six weeks.

By the way, if you happen to be traveling from Canada into the U.S. anytime soon, allow a lot of time to get through security and customs. It took 2 1/2 hours to get through the whole process this morning in Calgary. And no roll-aboard suitcases or big briefcases were allowed on board.

More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott, reporting from St. Paul, Minn.

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Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.