Flames bounce back with win over Kings

After being dismantled in a 4-0 loss at Edmonton on Thursday night, the Calgary Flames knew they had to put forth a much better effort in front of their home fans Sunday.

Mission accomplished.

Curtis Glencross scored a shorthanded goal and Miikka Kiprusoff made 21 saves as Calgary won its home opener in a 3-1 victory against the Los Angeles Kings at Scotiabank Saddledome.

"As far as our overall effort, guys really dug in," Flames coach Brent Sutter said. "You need that. You need that from your veterans and you need that play that the young guys gave us, too."

Glencross opened the game's scoring 11:31 into the second period. Kings defenseman Jack Johnson mishandled the puck at the Flames' blue line and Brett Sutter banged it off the boards and softly down the ice. Glencross collected the puck deep in the Kings' zone and cut to the front of the net, where he backhanded a shot past Jonathan Bernier.

"I was definitely thinking I was running out of real estate. I had to put a little extra reach on it to try and get it around him and I just got enough," said Glencross, who was second on the team with three shorthanded goals last season.

Calgary took a 2-0 lead at 1:20 of the third period when Craig Conroy used Davis Drewiske as a screen and beat Bernier with a 40-foot snap shot from the right wing.

Conroy, 39, was a healthy scratch for Calgary on Thursday. However, an injury to winger Raitis Ivanans suffered during a fight with Steve MacIntyre opened up a spot in the lineup.

"I didn't even see it go in, to be honest, I looked and saw the red light go on and I was like 'that went in?,"' said Conroy, who had three goals in 63 games last season. "Maybe it just surprised me more than anything. I don't know if I've scored from out there with a wrist shot in a long time."

Dustin Brown scored for the Kings at 14:06 of the third period to cut Calgary's lead to 2-1, when he redirected Anze Kopitar's shot past Kiprusoff.

"Unfortunately, we gave that game to them with opportunities on the power play, the shorthanded goal, and the second goal was a turnover trying to make a cute play inside the offensive blue line and they came right back at us," Kings coach Terry Murray said.

Niklas Hagman scored an empty-net goal with 23 seconds left for Calgary (1-1-0), which has won 10 games in row against the Kings on home ice.

Los Angeles (1-1-0) returns home on Tuesday night for its home opener against the Atlanta Thrashers.

"Kiprusoff played well, but I don't think we got enough quality chances on him," Kings forward Jarret Stoll said. "We could have done a better job getting more traffic to him, more second chance opportunities. If he sees that puck, he's going to stop it, we know that."

Material from wire services and team media was used in this report.

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