Last Line of Defense Is Solid : Kings: Berthiaume turns back 40 shots in 2-0 victory over Blackhawks.

Kings goalie Daniel Berthiaume stands 5 feet 9 and weighs only 150 pounds. But he was a giant in Chicago Stadium Sunday night. Nothing got by him in the Kings’ tense 2-0 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks took 40 shots, 14 in the third period alone. They kept the puck in the Kings’ zone for most of that final period in what seemed like a 20-minute power play.

They came in waves, one onslaught after another. They bounced the puck off posts, off each other. And mostly off Berthiaume.

But still nothing.

In what was certainly his finest hour as a King--and perhaps in his five-year career--Berthiaume held on for his fifth career shutout.

“I don’t care if they come and take shots,” he said. “You just have to face the music.”

The third period was even more tense because the King lead was only 1-0 for 19 minutes and 59 seconds until Steve Kasper scored his second goal of the season into an empty net after Chicago had pulled its goalie, Ed Belfour, with 49 seconds to play.

The crowd of 18,472 was treated to a pitchers’ duel, the goalies matching zeroes into the second period.

It was Berthiaume, who was picked up by the Kings in a trade on the eve of training camp after struggling in Winnipeg and Minnesota, against Belfour, a rookie who began play with nine victories, most in the NHL.

The Kings broke through on a power play. With Jocelyn Lemieux in the penalty box for hooking Tomas Sandstrom, Wayne Gretzky controlled the puck in the left corner and shoved it to Todd Elik by the left post. Elik passed it quickly to Luc Robitaille, who had stepped ahead of a defenseman in the slot.

“I knew Luke was free,” Gretzky said. “He doesn’t miss too often from that spot.”

Nor did he on this occasion, flipping the puck over Belfour’s left shoulder into the upper right-hand corner at the 6:44 mark of the second period.

“I make that shot a thousand times in practice,” said Robitaille of his eighth goal of the season. “I knew he (Gretzky) would give it to Todd. Once he did, I stepped into the hole. I know the goalie is never in the far corner, so I put it there.”

Robitaille gave Berthiaume the only edge he would need to boost the Kings’ record to 10-4-1, moving them within a point of the Smythe Division-leading Calgary Flames and giving the Kings a split of their six-game trip, the longest of the season.

As good as Berthiaume has been this season in amassing a 6-1 record, this was a game he felt he needed. Four days earlier, he had looked helpless in Madison Square Garden when the New York Rangers blasted him for six goals on 30 shots in a 9-4 victory.

“He told me before the game,” said Steve Duchesne of Berthiaume, “that, after his last game, he knew he had to come up big tonight. He sure did.”

Berthiaume’s teammates needed a victory as badly as he did. After a strong start that had propelled them to the top of the Smythe Division and a place among the league’s best defensive teams, the Kings seemed to have slipped the last two games, following the Ranger loss with a 4-3 defeat to the Washington Capitals Friday.

Kings defenseman Larry Robinson had questioned his team’s dedication to defense after Friday night.

The big question Sunday was whether the Kings could hold on in that nerve-whacking final period against a team that leads the Norris Division with a 10-6 record and had won three in a row.

Because they were constantly icing the puck, the Kings found themselves in one faceoff after another in the third period.

“I couldn’t get any momentum,” Kings Coach Tom Webster said, “because we had to keep our faceoff people out there.”

As a result, the Kings got only one shot on goal, that by Jay Miller, until Kasper’s empty-netter in the final second.

What it came down to was batten the hatches and ride out the waves of attackers.

“I thought it was a tremendous effort by Gretzky,” Webster said. “He was committed to his defense. He worked down low with his defensemen in unknown territory where he hasn’t been before.”

Gretzky called it “the kind of game we haven’t won in the three years I’ve been here.”

There were some close calls. Chris Chelios missed an open net when Berthiaume was unable to get back. Lemieux bounced a puck off a post.

And on one occasion, with Berthiaume facing Mike McNeill coming in from the right, McNeill passed the puck through the crease to Greg Gilbert on the left.

As Gilbert fired, Berthiaume whipped across the crease, hit the ice and slid into the oncoming shot, smothering it with his body.

Gilbert could only shake his head. Just another block on a night of frustration for the Blackhawks.