Kings Do It With Defense : Hockey: New goalie Ron Scott gets plenty of help in 3-2 victory over Capitals.

The Kings, trying to skate out of a horrendous defensive slump, returned to tough, rugged hockey Monday. There were bodies flying, heads cracking and doctors working.

And that was in the pregame warmup.

Both Todd Elik and Mike Allison left the Forum ice looking like Mike Tyson leaving the ring in Tokyo after they accidentally collided in front of the King net before the game.

Who said these guys don’t bang bodies?

Certainly not the Washington Capitals, who spent the rest of the afternoon on a collision course with a King team that stuck to the fiery tone set before the opening bell.

Behind an excellent defensive effort, the Kings won, 3-2, before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005 at Monday’s matinee.

Allison played despite a bruise under his left eye. Elik, having suffered a concussion, did not return.

“We were finally hitting some people,” said owner Bruce McNall, a smile back on his face after enduring a five-game losing streak that ended Saturday. “What we were actually doing was practicing our hits in the warmups.”

But once the game started, those hits just kept on coming.

The Kings allowed the Capitals only a dozen shots on goal in the first two periods. They entered the final period on top, 3-2.

A week ago, that would have been cause for alarm on a club that, in the final period, has been about as sturdy as the Berlin Wall.

Not this time.

“We played well defensively as a team,” said interim co-coach Rick Wilson, after the Kings had won their second in a row. “Not just the goalie or the defensemen. Everybody dug in on the defensive side of the puck.”

The result: Just seven shots on goal in the final 20 minutes, all of them stopped by Ron Scott, who faced 19 shots in all.

The Kings, after giving up 29 goals in five games, have now surrendered only three goals in their last two, although they were against Quebec and Washington, two of the NHL’s poorer teams.

When the season began, few would have guessed that the Kings would be 26-29-6 at this stage, stuck in fourth place in the Smythe Division.

But even fewer would dream that their erratic defense would be steadied by Scott.

A year ago, he was stuck within the New York Ranger organization. Scott was playing with the Colorado Rangers in the International Hockey League.

He was playing and coaching and, at 28, thinking his career might be over. After all, he had been with the Rangers for six years and hadn’t started an NHL game since Dec. 11, 1987. He won that one, 4-3, over the Winnipeg Jets.

But then he disappeared.

“I never gave up on myself,” he said. “But if anybody told me a year ago I’d be here, I would have thought he was crazy.

“I figured I might be an assistant with the Rangers. But when Phil Esposito (former general manager) got fired, I guess I got fired too.”

King Coach Tom Webster remembered Scott, who had played for him with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League. So when the Kings were looking for someone to back up Robb Stauber on their New Haven farm club, they obtained Scott in a trade with the Rangers.

When Stauber got hurt, Scott got the New Haven job. He was 5-0-1 in his last six games before joining the big club.

Scott got his chance in goal for the Kings when Kelly Hrudey went out with mononucleosis.

This was Scott’s third game for the Kings. And first victory.

“Three games don’t make a season,” said Scott, “but this is a little bit more fun.

“We played strong team defense today and didn’t allow them to pressure us. They (his teammates) kept the puck out of our zone and never let them (the Capitals) get on a roll where they could come down on us. It makes it a lot easier for the goalie.”

The Kings got Scott a lead 7:04 into the game on Mike Krushelnyski’s 10th goal, the puck going in on the short side over the glove of goalie Jim Hrivnak.

But then Washington came back with a pair in the first period, Michal Pivonka getting his 22nd, back-handed through Scott’s pads at 7:56, and Geoff Courtnall his 26th off his own rebound at 9:04.

Jay Miller tied the score by deflecting in Steve Kasper’s shot at 6:03 of the second period.

Gretzky got the game-winner at 14:54. Taking a pass from Steve Duchesne, Gretzky got his 34th goal past the sprawled body of Hrivnak.

Gretzky, after scoring only one goal in six games, now has five in his last four.

King Notes

Washington dropped to 26-31-4. . . . Luc Robitaille suffered a cut around the right eye when he was inadvertently hit by teammate Bob Kudelski’s stick. Robitaille suffered blurred vision, but did return. . . . Todd Elik, despite the concussion, hopes to play in the Kings’ next game Wednesday night.