Kings 3, Blue Jackets 0

LOS ANGELES (AP) -The Los Angeles Kings finally struck first and came away with a victory.

Michael Cammalleri scored his first goal in nearly three weeks and added an assist in a 3-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night.

Cammalleri's 14th goal ended an eight-game stretch in which the Kings gave up the first goal. They had been outscored 15-3 in the first period.

"It was important for us to keep a 1-0 lead for that long," Cammalleri said.

Mathieu Garon stopped 26 shots for his second shutout this season and the 10th of his career.

"Defensively, we were awesome. We were disciplined and didn't take that many penalties," Garon said. "At 2-0, I just wanted to get the win and the last minute I really wanted to get (the shutout)."

Cammalleri scored at even strength in the first period. Fredrik Norrena sprawled in front of the net to stop Derek Armstrong's shot, and the rebound bounced out to Cammalleri.

The Kings scored twice in the third on goals by Sean Avery and Lubomir Visnovsky. Alexander Frolov assisted on both, giving him 45 points to lead Los Angeles.

Visnovsky scored on a power play while digging out the rebound after Frolov's shot was stopped by Norrena.

"Because we were so strong in areas like our backcheck and clearing the pucks, we showed a lot of patience and ended up getting a lot of power-play time," Kings coach Marc Crawford said. "While we only scored the one power-play goal, I think it served to really wear the other team down."

The Blue Jackets committed three consecutive penalties between the Kings' goals in the third, including one that gave the Kings a 5-on-3 advantage, which Columbus killed.

"That's when the game turned," Blue Jackets coach Ken Hitchcock said. "We used our best players far too much killing penalties. That's been our nemesis the last three road games - far too many penalties. Some of them have been lazy and not very disciplined."

Norrena had 29 saves for Columbus, which has been shut out three times during a five-game road losing streak. The other losses came in overtime and in a shootout.

"They played a hard game and they were more desperate than we were," Columbus defenseman Adam Foote said. "We talked about it coming in here, but we didn't react well in the first period. They wanted it more."

Notes: Cammalleri's previous goal was Dec. 14 at San Jose, also the last time the Kings scored the first goal in a game. ... Garon's other shutout was a 4-0 win Oct. 19 against Phoenix. ... The Kings improved to 1-1-0 against Columbus this season and extended their home unbeaten streak against the Blue Jackets to six games. ... The Blue Jackets fell to 6-12-2 on the road. They'll play 13 games this month and have never won more than three on the road in January.