Kings Fill In Blank at Quebec : Hrudey Stops 24 Shots in L.A.’s First Shutout of the Season, 4-0

Kelly Hrudey was saying after the game that he doesn’t have a bonus clause in his contract for shutouts because he’s no shutout king.

Maybe not. But he was a King with a shutout Tuesday night after a 4-0 victory over the Quebec Nordiques before 15,399 at Le Colisee.

His first shutout since being traded from the New York Islanders was also the first shutout for the Kings this season, the first since Glenn Healy beat the Canucks at Vancouver, 2-0, in February of last season.

That’s a long time without a shutout, but then the Kings aren’t exactly known as a defensive team. They’re the highest-scoring team in the league and they’ve given up 300 goals this season. All the more reason for them to savor the moment the defensive effort that gave them a sweep of their three-game series with the struggling Nordiques.

The victory also gave the Kings (37-28-6) sole possession of second place in the Smythe Division, putting them two points ahead of Edmonton.

“It was really nice to see all the players making such a concerted effort on defense when the game was not in doubt anymore,” Hrudey said. “It seemed like they were trying to help preserve the shutout.”

Wayne Gretzky, who didn’t appear to be bothered that he was held to just one assist and nary a shot on goal, said: “I think we played very well. We did a lot of things that we wanted to do. That was smart hockey. . . . In order to play in the playoffs we have to think of defense; we have to be able to win games that are 3-2 or 2-1, games that are one-goal games or tied going into the third period.

“We’ve been playing that way for the last little while. Maybe the last two weeks we’ve executed very good defense.”

The Kings have been concentrating on defense since the team’s players-only meeting in Buffalo on the last trip.

Defenseman Tim Watters acknowledged that meeting as an important rallying point for the team.

“We were aware of it even before that, but the meeting helped,” Watters said. “Every team needs to get together like that from time to time. It was time for us to come together.”

Watters gave credit to the forwards for picking up the opposing forwards and slowing them a bit. “That makes a world of difference for the defensemen,” he said.

And the trickle-down effect is that Hrudey had to face only 24 shots on goal, only five in the third period.

“The nucleus of the team realizes that we have to be more defensive, and they’ve been talking it up,” King Coach Robbie Ftorek said. “It’s good for the guys to see that we can play good defense and still get our scoring opportunities and cash in on them.”

Steve Kasper was killing a penalty on Gretzky (for tripping) when he got his opportunity to give the Kings a 1-0 lead at 8:09 of the first period. Kasper stole a pass in the Nordiques’ zone and raced off on a breakaway to score, unassisted.

Kasper got the short-handed goal by skating past the Quebec goal on the right side, holding up his shot while goalie Ron Tugnutt set up on the right and then backhanding it to the left. Mike Krushelnyski’s power-play goal at 8:02 of the second period went off Tugnutt’s glove and bounced off Nordique defenseman Steven Finn and into the net.

Bernie Nicholls scored two goals (No. 62 and No. 63) in the third period. He scored the first after taking a pass from Luc Robitaille, who was behind the net, to make it 3-0 at 9:15. On the second, he slapped a long shot up the middle off a pass from Gretzky to make it 4-0 on a power play at 15:12.

“As long as we’re strong defensively, we don’t need to worry about our offense,” Watters said. “We’re always going to get our offensive chances.”

Hrudey said that taking away the passing lanes from the Nordiques consequently opened it up for the Kings.

Not in the wild, wide-open kind of game that they have been known to play; not like the last time they met the Nordiques, at the Forum, and beat them, 11-3. But enough.

There were times when the game Tuesday night seemed to stagnate, stalled in the middle of the ice with neither team doing much of anything.

“It was more the style of the game than a lack of intensity,” Watters said.

All around the Kings denied looking past the Nordiques (24-40-6) to tonight’s game against the Canadiens in Montreal.

The Canadiens lead the league in points and have to rank as one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup.

“I know how important the Canadiens’ game is,” Hrudey said. “That’s why I was more worried about (Tuesday’s) game. Mentally, you can’t come out here and be thinking ahead. This was a real test of our character. You know how you’re going to play against the good teams. But playing like this against a team that’s struggling, that showed our character.

“That showed our true colors.”

King Notes

Strips of tickets for all of the Kings’ first-round playoff games will go on sale at the Forum Friday morning at 10. Tickets for individual playoff games will go on sale at the Forum Saturday night after the Kings’ game against Calgary. . . . Roy Mlakar, vice president of the Kings, confirmed Tuesday that the Kings probably will not hold their training camp in Victoria, Canada, next fall. He said the Kings would announce their training camp site early next week. . . . Kelly Hrudey had three shutouts for the Islanders last season. . . . Hrudey is going home to New York after tonight’s game in Montreal because his wife, Donna, is due to give birth to their second child. . . . Hrudey’s record with the Kings is 5-2-1.