Kings crash Cammalleri's party

THE CANADIAN PRESS

CALGARY -- Mike Richards had a goal and an assist Saturday night as the Los Angeles Kings spoiled Mike Cammalleri's much anticipated Calgary debut, winning 4-1 over the Flames.

The victory, which snaps the Flames eight-game home winning streak, gives Darryl Sutter bragging rights over Brent, as the two brothers coached against each other for the first time.

Darryl, who stepped down as Calgary Flames general manager in December 2010, is 7-1-4 since replacing Terry Murray as Kings' coach on Dec. 17.

Darryl took over as Calgary's coach in the 2002-03 campaign and added GM title the following season. He guided the Flames to within one game of winning the Stanley Cup in 2004 and coached one more season before deciding to concentrate on his duties as GM.

Matt Greene, Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown into an empty net also scored for Los Angeles (22-15-8), which kicked off a three-game road trip that continues Sunday in Edmonton.

Cammalleri had his 10th goal of the season and first as a Flame (21-20-5).

It was Calgary's first regulation loss to Los Angeles at home since Dec. 21, 2005. In the 11 games since, they had gone 10-0-1.

Scoreless after 20 minutes, the Kings surged in front with three consecutive goals in the second, the first coming just 27 seconds into the period.

Richards made no mistake on a breakaway after the puck skipped over the stick of Mark Giordano.

The Kings made it 2-0 at 3:02 when Greene flung a wrist shot from the blue-line that beat a screened Kiprusoff over his blocker.

Los Angeles entered the night with the NHL's fourth best power play and it connected at 14:48. Dustin Brown's shot changed directions off of Justin Williams in front, and Kopitar was right there to flip the puck into the net with Kiprusoff trapped out of position.

Calgary outshot the Kings 30-24 but like most NHL teams these days, struggled to solve Jonathan Quick, who improves to 19-11-7.

With Los Angeles ahead 2-0, the Kings goaltender made a pair of great saves to keep the Flames off the scoreboard.

He threw out his glove to get a piece of a dangerous shot from Jay Bouwmeester. Shortly after, he sprawled across to deny a dangerous chance by Backlund from the side of the net.

Quick entered the night with a 6-1-3 record in his previous 10 starts, 1.45 goals-against average, and .947 save percentage, and all of those numbers got even better.

Kiprusoff made 20 stops to fall to 20-15-2.

In addition to making his Flames debut after Thursday night's trade with Montreal, Cammalleri was playing against his former team. He was drafted by the Kings in the second round of the 2001 NHL Draft and played five seasons in Los Angeles.

Cammalleri started the night on left-wing with Mikael Backlund and Lee Stempniak, but by the third period, Cammalleri had been reunited with Iginla with Backlund and Olli Jokinen both taking turns in the middle.

The night was full of tributes for Cammalleri from the roar from the Saddledome when he was announced in the starting line-up, to a video montage shown on the scoreboard during the first period, to yet another lengthy video of him coming from the airport and arriving to the throngs of media at the Saddledome on Friday night.

However, It was a less than stellar first half of the game for Cammalleri, who was on the ice for both of the Kings first two goals, took a penalty early in the second, and made a couple giveaways.

However, he eventually got the Flames on the scoreboard late in the second, deflecting Anton Babchuk's shot past Jonathan Quick at 15:52 of the second.

Calgary was the more dangerous team in the first period, outshooting Los Angeles 11-6 and also ringing a pair of shots off the iron. With three minutes left, Blake Comeau hit the goal post and less than 30 seconds later, Backlund hit the cross bar.

.Notes: Scratched to make room for Cammalleri was Paul Byron... It was Brent Sutter's 210th game as Flames coach, equalling the number of games Darryl Sutter spend behind the Flames bench... Calgary plays 18 of its final 36 games against the Pacific Division... Los Angeles improves to 15-2-4 when scoring first... It was the Flames first regulation time loss at home since Nov. 15 versus Ottawa. Calgary had been 10-0-1 in its past 11 games at the Saddledome... Iginla's next goal will be his 502nd, which will tie him with former Flame Joe Mullen for 40th on the all-time list. .