KINGS OFF TO A GOOD START IN '07 L.A. WINS BEHIND GARON'S SHUTOUT KINGS 3, COLUMBUS 0.

Byline: RICH HAMMOND Staff Writer

Here's the good news for the Kings at the midway point of this season: Things can't get (much) worse.

The Kings opened the second half of their 82-game schedule Wednesday night and sat just two points ahead of the last-place, but rapidly improving, St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference.

With their inconsistent scoring, goaltending and special teams, the Kings have plenty of room for improvement, and they need a lot of it, and soon, if the playoffs are to be anything but a pipe dream.

To that end, 2007 started on a positive note for the Kings, who took an early lead over the equally bad Columbus Blue Jackets and skated away with a 3-0win in front of an announced 16,451 at Staples Center.

Goaltender Mathieu Garon, still playing his way back into game shape, earned his second shutout of the season, his first coming Oct. 19 at Phoenix, which was also the Kings' only other shutout of the season.

Michael Cammalleri scored a goal 8:17 into the game, and Sean Avery gave the Kings a 2-0 lead with 8:48 remaining when he started a rush in the defensive zone, passed to Alexander Frolov and one-timed a return pass past Blue Jackets goalie Fredrik Norrena.

Lubomir Visnovsky added the Kings' third goal with 4:47left, with Frolov getting his second assist of the game.

The game didn't figure to be a show stopper. The Kings and Blue Jackets entered the night with 29 combined victories, just one more than the conference-leading Ducks have accumulated by themselves.

Columbus has been strong of late. The Blue Jackets had a 9-4-2 record in their past 15games. The Kings were 5-9-1 in that same span and were coming off road-trip losses to Calgary and Detroit.

If nothing else, the Kings at least seem to have solved their goaltending problems. For a while, they were stuck with struggling veteran Dan Cloutier and rookie Barry Brust, but now Cloutier is on injured reserve with a hip injury and Garon has returned from the groin injury that cost him 12 games.

Garon had struggled since his return. He allowed four goals against Edmonton and sixagainst Detroit and stopped 61 of 71 shots in the two games combined.

Garon looked solid Wednesday, but that was not difficult, given that the Blue Jackets had scored the fifth-fewest goals in the NHL entering Wednesday, and Garon didn't face significant pressure early as the Kings built a first-period lead.

Midway through the first, the Kings had outshot the Blue Jackets 11-2 and had taken a 1-0lead on Cammalleri's goal. Derek Armstrong did the leg work, as he came up the left side and cut hard to the net. Norrena went down to make the save, but Cammalleri came in and swept the rebound into the net. The goal came in a 4-on-4 situation and was the only goal of the period.

That was just the eighth time in 42 games this season that the Kings held a lead after the first period.

Cammalleri led the Kings with 26 goals last season, and with 13goals in his first 41 games this season, was exactly halfway to duplicating that effort. Cammalleri's season has been a bit top-heavy though. Entering Wednesday, he had an eight-game goalless streak, his longest drought of the season.

The Kings were out to avenge one of their two shutouts out of the season, suffered in Columbus on Oct. 27 in a 2-0 loss, but Norrena kept the Blue Jackets in the game with some steady play.

Norrena was particularly strong on the power play, as the Kings came up empty on sixpower-play chances through the second period, but the Blue Jackets' anemic offense couldn't support him.

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Photo:

The Kings' Mattias Norstrom, right, and Columbus' Jody Shelley get tangled up Wednesday.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer