Iginla's Hat Trick Powers Flames Win Over Kings

Captain Jarome Iginla scored his 9th career hat trick helping his Calgary Flames handing the Los Angeles Kings a 5-2 loss. The Kings slip to a 5-5-0 record in their last 10 games. Calgary has owned the Kings lately, beating L.A. 10 out of the last 11 meetings between the clubs.

Iginla started it off quickly, beating Kings netminder Jonathan Quick 13 seconds into the game. He also scored a power play goal on a 5 on 3 man advantage in the 2nd period and scored his first hat trick this year with about 4 minutes left in regulation. The National Hockey League's points leader, Kings center Anze Kopitar, was held to 2 shots on net, and tallied one assist on Alexander Frolov's 5th goal of the season. Kopitar ended as a minus 2 on the night. Iginla's 2nd goal tied the score at 2-2.

Los Angeles' Drew Doughty 6th goal of the season had tied it 1-1 and Doughty also got an assist on Frolov's goal. Miikka Kiprusoff kept the Kings off the scoreboard for the second half of the game as the Kings could only muster 5 shots in the 3rd period as Calgary put them away with 3 more goals, including Daymond Langkow's game winner while shorthanded at 7:22 of the 3rd.

Iginla got his 3rd of the night and 15th of the season at 15:53 of the 3rd period. With less than a minute left Calgary's David Moss tipped in Robyn Regehr's shot to seal the win. Calgary is now one point back of Northwest Division leading Colorado and have 2 games in hand on the Avalanche. L.A. meanwhile sits precariously in 2nd in the Pacific Division, one point up on Phoenix and two up on Dallas. Both the Coyotes and Stars have games in hand on the Kings.

Calgary heads to Anaheim Monday to play the Pacific basement dwelling Ducks, while the Kings are off until Wednesday when they head north to play the Edmonton Oilers.