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Martin Jones Continues To Impress with Shutout of the Oilers
Martin Jones has done something no King has ever done. With a 3-0 win over the Edmonton Oilers, he became the first Kings goaltender to win his first six games with the club.
"It's fun," Jones said after he tied his teammate Ben Scrivens for the league lead with three shutouts. "I want to make sure I'm focused and prepared for the games. But I'm also trying to enjoy them as well."
Watching Jones patrolling the crease, you wouldn't know that he was an undrafted rookie who was called up because of Jonathan Quick's pulled groin. There is a calmness in his movements on the ice that belies his lack of experience. It seems like he doesn't even sweat.
"It's great when you have a goaltender that makes the big saves look easy," Dwight King said. "It's a calming energy on the ice. When you've got a confident group of guys in front of a great goalie, it makes for good outcomes."
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It could be easy for a lot of guys to let the situation overwhelm them. It would have been forgivable if Jones had been sloppy in his first start in Anaheim on Dec. 3. Instead he stood strong in the crease and did not let anything through during nine shootout rounds to come away with the 3-2 win. While he is trying to have some fun, he knows what his job is.
"At the end of the day I've got to be ready to play, and I have to make sure I keep my game in order," Jones said.
Jones had to have him game in order as the Kings only had a 1-0 lead until five minutes remained in the game.
"I thought tonight was the harder of the three shutouts," Dustin Brown said. "He made some really good saves for us."
Two saves in the second period stood out. First a denial of an Ales Hemsky wraparound that somehow found his left pad:
There was also a turnover by Robyn Regehr behind the net that gave Nail Yakupov a point-blank chance that Jones saved.
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On Monday Jones was named the second star of the week by the NHL. With Scrivens announced as the first star of the NHL on Nov. 18, the duo were the only Kings players to be named stars of the week by the NHL. Not so bad for a franchise that as recently as the 2006-07 season had to go to Yutaka Fukufuji to fill in between the pipes — the four games being his only NHL experience.
King had the lone goal for the game for most of the game coming late in the first period. Brown netted an empty-netter to tie a bow on the game, his 400th career point.
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