Kings 3, Hurricanes 2

Sunday showed why.

Kidd is still looking for his first win after Carolina's 3-2 loss Sunday night to the Los Angeles Kings. Irbe, who leads the NHL in goals-against average (1.01 a game) and save percentage (five goals in 124 shots), recently helped Carolina to a four-game unbeaten streak.

``I've been making moves in the right direction during practice, but it's still frustrating,'' said Kidd, who stopped 22 of 25 shots. ``I can't say I've been very solid.''

Kidd held Los Angeles (3-2-2) scoreless for almost half the game as Carolina (2-2-3) took a 1-0 lead on Robert Kron's second-period goal.

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 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.''

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.

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

``I'm not so much concerned with how many goals we're scoring as how we're playing,'' Kings coach 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 win was the first of former Carolina farmhand Manny Legace's career. The 25-year-old goalie, traded to Los Angeles on July 31, stopped 29 shots.

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

The Hurricanes outshot the Kings 31-25, but went 0-for-4 on the power play.

``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.''