First LA win for Stevens

THAT WAS a sigh of relief coming from the Los Angeles Kings' dressing room.

Dustin Brown scored on a redirect midway through the third period and Jonathan Quick had 24 saves to lead the visiting Kings to a 2-1 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets last night, ending a five-game skid and giving interim coach John Stevens his first victory.

"It's a great feeling when you break a losing streak," center Anze Kopitar said. "It wasn't pretty but the effort was definitely there. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how. We got the two points."

Brown added an assist and Davis Drewiske also scored for the Kings, who fired Terry Murray on Monday. There is wide-spread speculation that general manager Dean Lombardi is close to hiring former San Jose coach and Calgary GM Darryl Sutter as the permanent coach.

Stevens, elevated from assistant, was serving his second game as interim coach. The Kings have not scored more than two goals in any of their last 10 games since Thanksgiving and came in averaging a league-worst 2.17 goals.

"The status doesn't change; it still feels like a win," Stevens said. "It was just a big win for our team considering this slide we've been on here. The guys played extremely hard tonight."

After a 5-1-1 start to the season, the Kings have gone 9-12-3.

Down a goal heading into the final period, the Kings' slumbering offense may have gotten some help.

At 4:33 of the third, Drewiske - who had yet to score a goal this season - tossed up a shot from the blue line near the left boards. As it sailed toward goalie Curtis Sanford, Brown had one skate in the crease with defenseman Fedor Tyutin nearby. The puck floated into the net high on Sanford's glove side. He quickly protested that Brown had interfered, but a review ruled it was a goal.

"It's funny how the game of hockey works, really," Brown said. "We've struggled to score goals and it's a result of people not being around the net. We get two dirty, greasy goals tonight and win a game. We need more guys around the net consistently and when you start to get that, other goals start to go in - nice goals."

The Kings then grabbed the lead at the 8:12 mark when Doughty teed it up for a hard slap shot from the right point and Brown redirected it for his sixth of the year.

"We haven't heard that game-winning song in a long time," Doughty said of the music playing in the dressing room. "So to finally hear that, it's definitely a great time. At the same time we have to be happy about this win and cherish it tonight. But when we get to practice tomorrow we've got to get right back to work. We've got to get on a roll and make up for all those games that we've lost."

Quick made the lead stand. Jeff Carter's hard shot with 1:30 to go pinged off the crossbar while a crowd of 16,090 sounded its disappointment. With the Blue Jackets pulling Sanford for an extra attacker in the final seconds, James Wisniewski got off a one-timer that Quick stopped. Carter, who scored in the second for his fourth game in a row with a goal, pounced on the rebound but was unable to get it past Quick.

Los Angeles controlled the puck and the pace for most of the night, putting 41 shots on goal. Sanford had a career-best 39 saves as the Blue Jackets faced a season-high in shots on goal.

"The fact [the Kings] came out the way they did and found a way to win a hockey game was a really good sign of the guys' perseverance that they had to get the job done," Stevens said. "I thought it was terrific."

At Uniondale, Jamie Benn scored the go-ahead goal 4:33 into the third period and also had an assist in the Dallas Stars' 3-2 victory over the New York Islanders. Richard Bachman made 25 saves to improve to 3-0 in the NHL and help the Stars run their winning streak to three games.

* At Raleigh, Drayson Bowman scored two goals to lead the Carolina Hurricanes past the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3.

* At Tampa, Steven Stamkos scored his 19th goal of the season 30 seconds into overtime and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Calgary Flames, 5-4.

* At Nashville, Shea Weber scored two goals late in the third period to give the Predators a 4-3 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit native David Legwand and Jordin Tootoo also scored for Nashville in its fourth straight win.

* At St. Louis, Brian Elliott made 25 saves, and Alex Steen had a goal and an assist in the Blues' 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers. Elliott lowered his NHL-leading goals-against average to 1.43 and increased his league-best save percentage to .950.

* At Winnipeg, Alex Ovechkin finally got Washington on the board with 1:14 to go in the game for a 1-0 win over the Jets. Michal Neuvirth made 26 saves for the Capitals.

* At Phoenix, Shane Doan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored third-period goals to lead the Coyotes over the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2.

Boston defenseman Adam McQuaid was fined $2,500 by the NHL for kneeing Ottawa's Nick Foligno in the Bruins' victory over the Senators on Wednesday night. McQuaid was given a major penalty for kneeing and a game misconduct for sticking out his leg to trip Foligno.