Nicholls Gets Hat Trick; Kings Beat Blues

Bernie Nicholls said the coaches jumped all over the Kings after a lackluster first period, and it apparently had the desired effect as Los Angeles came out and blew St. Louis away, 7-4, behind Nicholls’ 13th career hat trick Thursday night.

“It was obvious we didn’t play well in the first period,” Nicholls said of a period that saw only a single goal -- by St. Louis. “Give them the credit. They didn’t give us much. We got shouted at between periods and it got a little hyper in here.

“You can’t get excited after one bad period. We played well in the second and third.”

Nicholls scored his third hat trick of the season in running his goal scoring total to 43 in 44 games, second only to Mario Lemieux of Pittsburgh, who has 47.

After scoring the first Kings goal of the game, Nicholls completed his hat trick with a pair of goals 64 seconds apart early in the third period to expand what had been a 4-3 Los Angeles lead to 6-3.

Mike Krushelnyski added his 12th and 13th goals for the Kings, while rookie Igor Liba added a goal and two assists.

Tony McKegney collected two goals for the Blues, his 16th and 17th of the season.

The Kings have won two straight games after suffering through a five-game winless streak. St. Louis has won only once in their last six games.

Steve Tuttle scored the only goal of the first period at 1:45. After Nicholls’ 45-foot slap shot tied the game at 2:07 of the second period, McKegney rammed in a 5-footer at 3:44 to make it 2-1 Blues. The Kings then reeled off three straight goals to take command.

Luc Robitaille popped in a 10-foot rebound of a shot by Sylvain Couturier at 4:29 to tie the game at 2-2. Liba’s power play goal made the score 3-2 at 8:45. Liba deflected in Dale De Gray’s shot from the blue line past goaltender Greg Millen.

Krushelnyski’s first goal at 14:27 of the second came on a 5-foot tap-in off a pass from Liba to make it 4-2. St. Louis closed to 4-3 with 3:30 remaining in the middle period when Rick Meagher beat Kings goalie Glenn Healy on a 20-foot wrist shot.

“The difference tonight is we were down 4-3 going into the third, and we know it’s a one-goal game,” said Blues Coach Brian Sutter. “We’ve got to play like we did in the first two periods. We got away from what we do as a hockey team. We let it slip away. You’ve got to play 60 minutes -- that’s concentration. It’s not that didn’t get any chances because we got the opportunities.”

Kings goalie Glenn Healy won his 20th game of the season, tying him for the NHL lead with Philadelphia’s Ron Hextall.

“Fortunately we came out strong,” said Healy, “and when you get a cushion you tend to play with a lot more confidence.”