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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Expansion teams aren't supposed to be very
good. A quality goalie can make up for a chasm of shortcomings.
|  | | Ron Tugnutt claimed the pucks were just hitting him, but he was being modest after stopping 45 shots Tuesday night against the potent Kings. |
Ron Tugnutt stifled one of the NHL's most potent offenses,
turning away 45 shots, as the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Los
Angeles Kings 4-1 Tuesday night.
"I was flipping and flopping," the veteran said with a smile.
"A lot of pucks were hitting me."
Serge Aubin scored two goals and Geoff Sanderson and Jamie
Heward had one each for Columbus, which won its second in a row at
Nationwide Arena after going winless in its first five home games.
The Kings routed the Blue Jackets 7-1 in the expansion team's
second game, a contest referred to as the franchise's "low point"
by some Columbus players.
"Dave King's a real good coach," Los Angeles coach Andy Murray
said. "We knew how they had been playing, we'd seen the results.
We knew what to expect. We knew they were going to be better."
King said the victory was a tribute to his goalie.
"The difference in the game was in penalty-killing situations,
Tugger made some great saves," he said. "He got us out of trouble
tonight. He saved us."
With 46 goals, Los Angeles is the highest-scoring team in the
NHL. But Tugnutt stopped shot after shot as the Kings turned the
second period into a shooting gallery.
The shot total was the Kings' highest since piling up 39 against
Marc Denis in the victory at Columbus.
"You could see the way Tugger played tonight -- the zone he was
in -- it was going to be a much different game," King said.
Los Angeles had scored the first goal in 10 of its 12 games, but
Aubin gave the Blue Jackets a 1-0 lead when he flipped a shot past
Jamie Storr 7:03 in.
With teammate Jan Caloun carrying the puck up the right side,
Aubin trailed the play. When Caloun bumped into Mathieu Schneider
and the puck popped loose, Aubin swooped in and lifted it over
Storr's glove for his first goal of the season.
"Serge played great," said Kevyn Adams, who assisted on
Aubin's open-net goal in the final seconds. "He's been right on
the doorstep the last several games."
The goals were Aubin's first of the year.
"It was a huge win," he said. "It was a great game as a team
and we got great goaltending."
Sanderson then picked up his second of the season. David Vyborny
made a pressured pass to Sanderson, who raced from behind the net --
skating almost to the point -- before whipping a left-handed
backhand that beat Storr on the glove side at 15:57.
Tugnutt made that stand up, stopping the first 17 of the 18
shots he faced in the second period.
During one sequence, a Tugnutt pass was stolen by Zigmund
Palffy, who slipped down as he came in on an open net from a bad
angle. His shot bounced off the side of the net.
Then Bryan Smolinski fired a shot that was stopped by Tugnutt's
blocker, while the goalie was sprawled on the ice on his back.
Before the power play was over, Tugnutt stopped five more shots
-- including two after losing his stick.
A crowd of 15,250 -- many dressed in Halloween costumes -- began
chanting, "Tug-nutt! Tug-nutt!"
But with two seconds left in the period, Rob Blake fired a shot
from the left wing that was deflected past Tugnutt by Jozef
Stumpel. Tugnutt thought the shot ricocheted in off the skate of
Columbus' Lyle Odelein.
Stumpel, who missed the first eight games during a contract
impasse, has two goals and three assists in five games.
Heward's slap shot with 6:44 left made it 3-1 with 6:44
remaining, giving Columbus and Tugnutt some breathing room.
"There's nothing better than winning," Tugnutt said. "It's a
great feeling when you win."
Game notes
The game was the first of four in six days for Columbus.
... Blue Jackets LW Krzysztof Oliwa will miss the next three months
after breaking his arm Oct. 28 against Detroit. At +1, he was the
only member of the team with a positive plus-minus. ... The Kings
came in tied with New Jersey as the highest-scoring team in the NHL
with 45 goals, then took the lead on the idle Devils. ... Columbus
has five of its seven points in its last three home games.
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ALSO SEE
NHL Scoreboard
Los Angeles Clubhouse
Columbus Clubhouse
RECAPS
Carolina 6
Tampa Bay 5
Columbus 4
Los Angeles 1
Ottawa 4
Toronto 3
NY Islanders 4
Boston 2
St. Louis 4
Nashville 2
Washington 6
Detroit 2
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Serge Aubin notches two goal on the Kings..
avi: 1488 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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