Music: {allcanada} Flames edge Kings on Cammalleri's late goal

Saturday, November 30, 2013

{allcanada} Flames edge Kings on Cammalleri's late goal

Christmas In Connecticut (1945)

LOS ANGELES -- Since franchise goalie Jonathan Quick went down, the Los Angeles Kings still grinded out wins with methodical efficiency.

But on Saturday night, Mike Cammalleri got open in front of the net for Mikael Backlund's pass and backhanded the puck past Kings goalie Ben Scrivens with 23 seconds left in regulation to lift the Calgary Flames to a 2-1 victory at Staples Center.

Karri Ramo and the injury-decimated Flames snapped L.A.'s franchise record-tying 11-game point streak (7-0-4). The Kings had won four straight games in overtime or a shootout.

Justin Williams tied it with 4:31 left on a wrist shot from the right side that beat Ramo. The Flames goalie got a piece of the shot, but it found the upper portion of the net.

Ramo made 21 saves and beat L.A. for the second time this season. Two of Ramo's three wins have come against the Kings.

Scrivens has been masterful in place of Quick, but his gaffe allowed Calgary to take a 1-0 lead into the third period.

During a five-minute power play, Scrivens fell trying to grab the puck. Paul Byron beat him to it from behind the goal line and from a prone position passed it to Jones for an open-net shorthanded goal at 15:50 of the second.

Ramo looked sharp in his first start since Nov.8. He made a blocker save on Jordan Nolan and consecutive stops on Drew Doughty and Jeff Carter in the first period. Ramo also made clutch saves on Carter and Slava Voynov during the five-minute penalty kill in the second.

Calgary, which had three power plays in the previous four games, got four in the first 30 minutes but managed three shots total and one on a two-man advantage.

It wasn't the finest second period for L.A., which entered the game tied for third in the NHL for the most times shorthanded. Captain Dustin Brown's interference penalty was the most egregious and was the result of a hit on Matt Stajan 180 feet from L.A.'s net.

The Flames were guilty too. Ladislav Smid committed the five-minute major boarding penalty when he ran Dwight King and gave King a nasty cut near his eye. Shane O'Brien took a hard elbowing penalty on Williams against the end boards.

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