Kings Fly Past 'Canes 2-3

Former Carolina farmhand Manny Legace celebrated his first NHL victory at the expense of the Hurricanes.

The 25-year-old goalie, traded to Los Angeles on July 31, stopped 29 shots Sunday as the Kings beat the Hurricanes 3-2.

"It was a little extra incentive," Legace said. "I didn't really approach this game any differently from any other. But for me to get my first win against the team that traded me, well, life is just funny that way."

Legace, who began the season with Long Beach in the International Hockey League, made his third start for the Kings with Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr sidelined by groin injuries.

Legace made 49 saves Wednesday night in his NHL debut in a 1-1 tie at Florida. He also was in goal Friday night at Tampa Bay, but sustained a mild concussion in the second period of the Kings' 3-2 loss.

Sandy Moger scored the game-winning goal with 2:54 left, taking a pass from Mattias Norstrom and firing a shot from 50 feet that skidded under goalie Trevor Kidd's stick.

"He was strong early and made some good saves on some very solid shots," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said of Kidd. "I'll have to take a closer look at them, but it appeared that there were some tipped pucks and strange plays on the later goals. He's just had some things that haven't gone his way."

Carolina's Gary Roberts tied it at 2 at 3:46 of the third period.

Los Angeles' Luc Robitaille broke a 1-1 tie at 9:22 of the second period, and set up Glen Murray's go-ahead goal 3:40 later.

Ray Ferraro set up Robitaille's fourth goal of the season, stealing the puck from Carolina defenseman Curtis Leschyshyn. Murray beat Kidd with a shot from just inside the Carolina blue line off a pass from Robitaille.

Carolina's Robert Kron opened the scoring at 8:06 of the second period.

"I'm not so much concerned with how many goals we're scoring as how we're playing," Kings cach Larry Robinson said. "The last two, two-and-a-half periods of this game, the effort was really there. We stuck to our game plan and did the things we wanted to do."

The Hurricanes outshot the Kings 31-25, but went 0-for-4 on the power play en route to their first loss in five games.

"It was slow going out there," Maurice said. "We played the biggest team in the NHL tonight. They're big and strong. We couldn't generate some of the things we have in the past four games or so."

© 1998 SportsLine USA, Inc. All rights reserved