Teammates and friends in the minors, Los Angeles Kings rookies Calvin Peterson and Matt Luff pulled off NHL firsts in the same game.
Peterson on Monday earned his first shutout and Luff scored his first goal, leading the Kings to a 2-0 victory over the St Louis Blues, hours before the Blues fired coach Mike Yeo.
“It’s unreal,” Luff said. “We were talking when I gave him a hug on the ice about that. Couldn’t have picked a better day for it to happen with him getting his first shutout. We talked about it on the plane. He’s probably one of the best kids, so I’m happy it happened for him.”
Photo: AP
Peterson, making his third start for the Kings, stopped 29 shots. He was the 24th rookie goaltender to start a game for Los Angeles.
“On the personal side, to get the shutout was very cool, and for Luffer to get his first [goal] was very cool, too,” Peterson said. “So it was an all-around great night.”
The Kings, last in the Pacific Division, had lost four of their past five games before picking up the win over St Louis in a game featuring teams with the worst records in the Western Conference.
Interim coach Willie Desjardins said it was a good win for the Kings.
“They’re hard to play against,” Desjardins said. “They had a few chances. I thought we played pretty good overall.”
“It’s hard to win if you don’t score goals,” Blues forward Vladimir Tarasenko said. “I have no words. We’re trying hard, maybe too hard. If we don’t score, it’s zero in every game and it’s really frustrating.”
Los Angeles went up 1-0 at 8 minutes, 18 seconds of the second period. Luff scored his first goal on his sixth career shot when he hit a wrister from the right circle.
“It wasn’t a perfect shot, but luckily it went in,” Luff said.
Anze Kopitar added an empty-netter with 30 seconds left.
St Louis general manager Doug Armstrong named Craig Berube as the team’s interim coach.
At 7-9-3, the Blues are in last place in the Central Division and their 17 points rank next-to-last in the NHL, ahead of only Los Angeles.
The 45-year-old Yeo had joined the Blues as an assistant in 2016 after five seasons with Minnesota.
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