Hat Trick Accessorizes King Win

It’s always a good thing for the Kings when the biggest suspense of the night is whether they can record a shutout.

That was the case Thursday against struggling Boston when Alexander Frolov broke out of a scoring slump with a third-period hat trick and goaltender Mathieu Garon made 30 saves in a 6-0 victory at TD Banknorth Garden.

“It’s easy when we play like we did tonight,” Garon said about the Kings, who ended a two-game losing streak with their first victory in Boston since March 30, 1999. “We played great as a team defensively.”

The Kings improved to 28-16-2 for 58 points, two behind first-place Dallas in the Pacific Division. Boston dropped to 16-21-6, last in the Northeast Division.

Garon, who made his sixth consecutive start and 13th in 14 games, needed to be on top of his game early. After losing 6-2 at home to former teammate Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, the Bruins seemed determined to score first Thursday, but Garon was solid with one save after another, highlighted by stops on point-blank power-play attempts by Ben Walter and Milan Jurcina.

By the middle of the first period, the Kings’ pressure took control and Boston goaltender Andrew Raycroft could not keep up with Garon. Defenseman Joe Corvo finally knocked in the game’s first goal when he scored on a wrist shot from the center point with 1:05 remaining in the period.

The Kings took a 2-0 lead when Michael Cammalleri had his initial shot from the right circle blocked and followed his rebound with a goal at 12:02 of the second period.

Trailing by two goals, the Bruins stepped up their game and again Garon was ready. Although he had to make only five saves in the second after making 11 in the opening period, Garon stopped a short-handed chance for the Bruins that pleased Coach Andy Murray.

“It was 2-0, and they had somebody open in the front of the net and we did not rotate quick enough,” Murray said. “That was one of the deciding points of the game. Instead of it being 2-1, we got a chance to make it 3-0.”

In the final period, the Kings needed only 44 seconds to give Murray the cushion he wanted when Frolov scored his first goal with a stick since Nov. 26. Defenseman Nathan Dempsey got the play started with a shot from in front of the Boston bench, and Frolov finished it when he deflected the puck past Raycroft.

“I had only one goal in the last 20-something games and I really worked hard to score a normal goal,” said a laughing Frolov. “I got it finally.”

From there, the Kings only added more pain to the Bruins, who have the sixth-worst record in the league.

Dustin Brown, who had sat out the previous three games because of a chest injury, scored from the left circle to put the Kings ahead 4-0 at 4:42.

Less than a minute later, Frolov drew a penalty shot when he was dragged down on a breakaway by the Bruins’ Nick Boynton.

Frolov made it look easy when he beat Raycroft with a nifty move to give the Kings a five-goal lead at 5:17.

For the Kings, it was their second successful penalty shot of the season. Corvo scored against Detroit on Nov. 28.

To complete the second three-goal game of his career, Frolov scored for the final time of the night when he gathered in a perfect pass from Craig Conroy and scored through the skates of Raycroft to give the Kings a 6-0 lead at 10:55.

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Three’s a crowd

Alexander Frolov scored the Kings’ NHL-leading sixth hat trick of the season Thursday.

*--* PLAYER OPP/SCORE Date Lubomir Visnovsky Dallas/6-3 11/2 Craig Conroy Colum./8-2 11/13 Alexander Frolov Colum./8-2 11/13 Pavol Demitra Colorado/4-3 11/19 Derek Armstrong Phoenix/5-6 12/29 Alexander Frolov Boston/6-0 1/12

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