CALGARY, Alberta _ Drew Doughty went straight to the corner, arms raised, fists pounding on the glass. His move was calculated, a cathartic release of the tension that had been building all night.
Earlier in the evening, the Los Angeles Kings had been up by three, only to let the Calgary Flames come all the way back and force overtime. Throughout the game, Doughty had been jeered by the Scotiabank Saddledome crowd, treatment befitting of his status as the foil to Flames' star Matthew Tkachuk.
So when he buried the overtime winner Tuesday night, handing the Kings' a 4-3 win for their first victory of the year and of the Todd McLellan era, he didn't curb his celebration.
"As much as you love getting booed every time you touch the puck," said Doughty, "you kind of want to shove it in their faces."
Long before Doughty's deciding goal, the Kings put on an exhibition at the start of the game.
They pestered the Flames into turnovers, passed their way through the neutral zone, peppered the net _ outshooting the Flames 20-3 in the first period _ and put away several of their chances too.
Tyler Toffoli struck first, taking a pass from Ilya Kovalchuk and snapping a shot past Flames goalie David Rittich. Later, Kings defenseman Sean Walker pinched in the offensive zone, picked up the puck in the corner and banked a sharp-angle shot off Rittich's side and in.
Kovalchuk, who was double-shifting in McLellan's 11-forward and seven-defenseman lineup, made it 3-0 early in the second. After Rittich got his blocker to a shot from the point, Kovalchuk whacked the deflected puck out of the air on the back post. The goal was upheld on review, giving the forward his first one of the season.
The first 25 minutes looked like a highlight reel of everything new coach McLellan would want in his new squad. The rest of regulation was almost everything he wouldn't want.
Tkachuk sparked the Flames' rally midway through the second period, picking up a loose puck in the slot and putting it past Kings goalie Jack Campbell _ who was making his season debut and getting his first live-game action in nearly two weeks _ on his blocker side. Minutes later, Campbell lost the puck under his pads, allowing Mikael Backlund to jam it in and cut the Kings' lead to one.
In the third, the Flames generated one chance after another. A Kovalchuk defensive-zone turnover led to a Flames shot from the point that skipped just wide of the net. Campbell denied Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson's attempt from the right-wing circle. Tkachuk put a rebound attempt just wide of a partially open net.
During one six-plus-minute stretch of uninterrupted play, the Flames nearly scored a half-dozen times. With less than two minutes left, they pulled their goalie. Finally, the dam broke. Fittingly, it was Tkachuk who tied the game at last, burying a loose puck in front with 1:04 remaining.
In the final 30 seconds of regulation, however, Flames forward Sam Bennett tripped Anze Kopitar. The Kings' ensuing power play extended into overtime, where it became a 4-on-3. Doughty teed up an initial one-timer that Rittich saved. When he was fed the puck a second time, again clobbering it with a perfectly timed slap shot, it didn't miss, deflecting off a Flames' stick and into the top corner.
"Before that overtime started, I knew I had a great opportunity," Doughty said. "I was like, 'Every time I get that puck, I'm ripping it.' (Kopitar) made a great pass. It was a lucky shot ... but luck comes to good people I guess."
