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  Friday, Dec. 10 7:30pm ET
Wings stay hot, beat Kings at home
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

DETROIT (AP) -- Manny Legace says he had no hard feelings when he left the Los Angeles Kings after last season. But he admits it was special beating his former team Friday night.

Legace won his second straight start in the Detroit net and Steve Yzerman scored two goals as the Red Wings beat the Kings 3-1.

Sergei Federov
Los Angeles' Brian Smolinski keeps an eye on the Wings' Sergei Fedorov on Friday night.
Vyacheslav Kozlov also scored for the Red Wings, who have won four of their last five and six of eight.

Glen Murray had the lone goal for the Kings, who lost for the first time in their last five games (2-1-2).

Legace stopped 27 shots against his old teammates.

"It was nice to play against them," Legace said. "(Kings captain) Luc Robitaille skated by and said 'hello' (before the game). I left on good terms there. I'm a Detroit Red Wing now and glad."

Legace, who's listed as 5-foot-8, was 2-9-2 as a 25-year-old rookie with the Kings last season but left afterwards as a free agent.

"You think he's small and you shoot high and he keeps stopping everything with his glove," Robitaille said. "And you think he's small and you shoot in the corners low and his pad always seems to be there. He's one of those goalies where you have to keep on shooting and hope you get a break."

Detroit claimed Legace off waivers from Vancouver last month, and he was recalled from the minors on Dec. 2 when Ken Wregget struggled backing up regular Chris Osgood, who's out with a broken right hand.

He looked confident and the team looked confident in front of him," Detroit coach Scotty Bowman said.

In his first Detroit start Wednesday, Legace gave up two first-period goals but eventually beat Nashville 6-3.

"I felt more comfortable tonight; a lot less nervous," Legace said. "And I had an easy first period."

The only shot that got past Legace was a power-play goal from Murray that gave the Kings a brief 1-1 tie 4:05 into the second period. Murray got control of a pass from Bryan Smolinski that went through his skates and fired a pointblank shot past Legace.

But Yzerman answered with his second goal just 47 seconds later to put Detroit ahead for good. His shot from the left circle deflected off the sticks of two Kings defensemen before passing Kings goalie Jamie Storr, who had 30 saves.

Kozlov added an insurance goal on a power play with 3:11 left in the third when his shot from Storr's right deflected in through the goalie's legs.

The power play was set up by a disputed slashing call against Murray with 4:53 remaining.

"It was a good game until (referee Stephen Walkom) called that," Murray said. "That was going on all night. There was a lot worse than that."

Kings coach Andy Murray questioned the timing of the call.

"My question is there's four minutes left in the game, it's a battle, both teams are playing hard," he said. "Just let them decide it. Our team's doing whatever it can to win hockey games now. We're battling hard out there. I don't yell and scream at the referees. I try to stay calm with them. That's the way I'm going to stay, but I don't think he gave us a break there."

Yzerman scored the only goal of the first period when he poked the rebound of Nicklas Lidstrom's shot away from Storr and flicked it in the net at 3:27.

Yzerman has goals in his last four games.

 


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AUDIO/VIDEO
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 Steve Yzerman scores his second goal of the night.
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