CALGARY -- Martin Jones made a habit of winning big games at the Scotiabank Saddledome during his Western Hockey League career. Four years after guiding the Calgary Hitmen to a WHL championship and a berth in the 2010 Memorial Cup, Jones made a triumphant return to the Saddledome with the Los Angeles Kings. "I was excited to play here for sure," said Jones, who made 24 saves to backstop the Kings to a 3-2 win over the Calgary Flames on Monday. "I had four great years here. It was a good road win. It wasnt pretty." Anze Kopitar had a goal and an assist for the Kings (38-22-6), who have reeled off eight straight wins. "Definitely we didnt want to make it as interesting as it was, but yeah I guess it was pretty big," said Kopitar of his third-period goal that put the Kings up 3-0 and eventually stood up as the game winner. "It wasnt the prettiest win tonight, but at the end of the day we got the two points." Kopitar commended Jones for his play in between the pipes for the Kings. "He put on a really nice show tonight," Kopitar said. "Hes been stellar for us. Every time hes been in the net, hes been really good for us." Justin Williams and Trevor Lewis also scored for the Kings. Mike Cammalleri and Brian McGrattan scored for the Flames (25-33-7), who lost for just the second time in their past nine games at the Saddledome. Coincidentally, it was the Kings who last beat the Flames at home on Feb. 27. "The way we played the last seven-eight minutes of the game, if we had played the whole game like that, the outcome might have been different," said McGrattan, who has goals in back-to-back contests after going 29 games without scoring. "We hung around the whole game. We came on at the end. We didnt give up." Playing in his fourth straight game, rookie Calgary goalie Joni Ortio made 20 saves in a losing cause. With the win, Jones improved his record in his rookie season with the Kings to 10-4. "Its a totally different animal being here and at this level and in this dressing room, on this side of the ice," said Jones, who played his entire WHL career with the Hitmen. "I just wanted to make sure I stayed focused. I was excited to be here but wanted to make sure I was focused on the task at hand here." Never drafted by an NHL team, Jones was invited to L.A.s training camp in 2008 and subsequently signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Kings. With Jonathan Quick out of L.A.s lineup due to a groin injury earlier this season, Jones was called up by the Kings and promptly won his first eight NHL starts, three of them shutout victories. He lost his next four decisions before making 25 saves in L.A.s 6-4 road win over the Colorado Avalanche on Feb. 26. Quick played the next five games in net for the Kings, all wins, before L.A. coach Darryl Sutter decided to give Jones the start against the Flames. "He was really solid," Sutter said. "To be quite honest, when we came back from the Olympics we started in Colorado and he won that game also. We were down 4-2 and he hung on and he won that game also. He did a good job in there tonight." The Kings scored on their first shot on goal at 4:05 of the first when Williams redirected a pass from Anze Kopitar past Ortio. Williams drove hard to the net and attempted to get his stick on the pass from Kopitar, but the puck instead bounced off his shin and into the net behind Ortio. "Theyre a bigger, more physical team than us and I thought they imposed their rhythm right from the start," said Calgary coach Bob Hartley. "They got that early goal and that kind of put us on our heels." The Kings then went up by a pair at the 10-minute mark of the first when Lewis tipped Slava Voynovs point shot into the top corner behind Ortio, who lost his stick on the play when his own defenceman Kris Russell accidentally knocked it out of his hands. The Flames had a great chance to pull within one in the dying moments of the first, but Jones made a shoulder save to stop a shot fired his way by former Hitmen teammate T.J. Galiardi before sticking out his left pad to stop a backhand attempt by McGrattan. Jones also had to be sharp early in the second period as he stood his ground to turn aside back-to-back shots of the stick of Calgary forward Paul Byron. Early in the third period, Jones made a shoulder save to stop Calgary forward Mikael Backlund from scoring on a partial breakaway with the Kings on a power play. Kopitar added an insurance marker for the Kings at 7:01 of the third when he tipped Drew Doughtys point shot past Ortio. A short time later, Jones lunged forward to stop a point blank shot by Cammalleri to keep the Flames off the scoresheet. With Mike Richards serving a delay of game penalty, Cammalleri finally scored at 15:29 of the third to break Joness shutout bid. Cammalleris shot appeared to deflect off Voynov before trickling through Joness legs. McGrattan made things interesting by scoring with 2:22 remaining in regulation when he spun around and fired a slapshot from the slot past Jones. Notes: Injury woes for the Flames continued as a pair of rookies were forced to leave the game. Markus Granlund played just 12 seconds early in the first period before taking a hit from L.A. forward Jarret Stoll, forcing him to leave the game with an upper-body injury. Defenceman Tyler Wotherspoon also sustained an upper-body injury in the third period and didnt return. a The Kings played without forward Jordan Nolan, who was assessed a one-game suspension for sucker punching Edmonton Oilers forward Jesse Joensuu on Sunday. Tanner Pearson drew into the lineup in place of Nolan. a After being acquired by the Kings from the Columbus Blue Jackets at the NHL trade deadline last Wednesday, forward Marian Gaborik is still looking for his first point with the Kings. Gaborik played on a line with Kopitar and Williams. a The Kings improved their record when leading after two periods this season to a perfect 21-0. Bobby Ryan Jersey . It was considered unlikely that Rielly would be loaned to Canada for the tournament, which begins Dec. 26 in Malmo, Sweden, though a stretch of three straight games in the press box made it something of a debate. Brady Tkachuk Senators Jersey . The ongoing funk on penalty kill and an unusually quiet night on home ice for the power play divided the Leafs from the Bruins at the ACC in a rare Sunday night affair. http://www.senatorssale.com/ . Burkes Flames are one of several teams involved in heavy trade speculation going into next Wednesdays 3pm et deadline, with the most prominent name in play being forward Michael Cammalleri. Daniel Alfredsson Senators Jersey .com) - Jimmy Butler made four key free throws down the stretch to lift the Chicago Bulls over the Boston Celtics, 109-102, on Friday. Jason Spezza Jersey .J. Ellis hit an RBI single in the ninth inning, Hanley Ramirez hit a tape-measure, three-run homer in the first against Cliff Lee and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 on Saturday night.Toronto FC head coach Ryan Nelsen blasted the Canadian Soccer Association on Friday, saying cooperation between the two parties is all "one-way traffic." After putting the finishing touches to his teams preparations for Saturdays Major League Soccer match against Real Salt Lake, Nelsen voiced his frustrations at a perceived injustice as he loses four of his players to Canadas Gold Cup squad following the game. Doneil Henry, Jonathan Osorio, Kyle Bekker and Ashtone Morgan are all named in Canadas squad for the Gold Cup and will report to the teams training camp in California after the weekend. Toronto had asked if they could keep two of the four players until after Wednesdays all Canadian match-up at home to Montreal Impact. So far the Canadian Soccer Association hasnt agreed to that, and Nelsens comments on Friday will have done nothing positive for relations between club and country. "Theyve taken four of our players and a coach (Pat Onstad) without even a thank you," said the former New Zealand international. "Unfortunately thats the problem we are in. We develop them, and we give them the opportunity more than any other clubs and then they take them away. Its a bit frustrating but I suppose thats life." "We let Canada Soccer use our facilities, we give them a coach, we try and develop as many good young players as we can and all we are asking for is one day where we can just keep a couple of them. Unfortunately it is one-way traffic so we will have to live with that. They will come in and use our facilities and our coaching staff. We will open our arms to them again when they keep asking." "One of our coaches is out there working hard for Canadian soccer right now - hopefully we get a thank you letter. Its nice that we can help them out but hopefully one day we can get a favour in return. I want Canadian soccer to win more than anybody. All I am asking is for a couple of them just to stay one more day. The players are more frustrated than anyone so that might come back to hurt them in the long-run." Nelsen says the international absentees will leave his club so short that for the Montreal match he "wont be able to put a squad together," and "cant fill the bench." Ryan Nelsen isnt the only MLS coach to complain about the current situation. Over the last few years, Major League Soccer has tried to improve scheduling to avoid playing league matches on international dates. The situation is better than it was, but still needs improving. Clubs should not have to play matches without three or four of their best players who are away on international duty. It devalues the product, and can often lead to an unfair advantage for the opposition. If MLS is to meet its goal of being one of the top leagues in the world by 22022, its a massive issue that needs to be resolved.dddddddddddd The scheduling is far from ideal, however the Gold Cup is also not a surprise. It is something clubs needed to plan for well in advance. Saturdays opponents Real Salt Lake have been hit as badly as any other MLS team. They have already lost joint leading scorer Alvaro Saborio who has linked up with the Costa Rica squad early. Following Saturdays match, they will then be without starting goalkeeper Nick Rimando, defender Tony Beltran, and Captain Kyle Beckerman. They are four players who would be in the starting lineup on a regular basis, but who the club has to cover for during the next month. Of the four players missing for TFC, only two – Henry and Osorio – have started matches regularly in recent weeks. Morgan has only made one substitute appearance in the last seven matches and Bekker hasnt appeared in MLS since March, however both may have been called upon to fill the void had they not been selected for Canada. Aside from those absentees, Nelsens squad size is currently reduced by the fact that the club decided to waive defender Logan Emory on Thursday, and they remain unable to call upon defender Danny Califf who has been away in California attending to personal matters. In a perfect world, clubs and governing bodies would foster positive relationships where they try and accommodate the needs of all parties. Toronto FC obviously feels the CSA isnt doing its part right now, but speaking out so publicly is a dangerous tactic and more likely to lead to bad blood between the two groups than a resolution. While I believe the scheduling of MLS matches during the Gold Cup is a major but somewhat unavoidable issue, I do think all clubs releasing players to a country should follow the same rules no matter how many players they have called up. The CSA cannot give one club preferential treatment. If Toronto FC is allowed to keep one or two players until after Wednesdays match, why should Vancouver Whitecaps be forced to release Russell Teibert? The Caps also have Simon Thomas called up for Canada and Carlyle Mitchell joining Trinidad and Tobago. Fortunately for Vancouver, they managed to work an agreement with Honduras which means Johnny Leveron has not been included in the Gold Cup squad. Toronto FC president Kevin Payne is asking the CSA to change its mind and let two of the four players stay behind, but as of Friday afternoon the club was still waiting for a response. While Toronto FC is left feeling aggrieved at the situation, there really is very little the CSA can - or should - do at this stage. Hopefully moving forward, both parties can work together to develop a more positive relationship. Toronto FC against Real Salt Lake is live on TSN2 on Saturday, June 29 at 1pm et/10am pt. ' ' '