An Old Line Works for Kings : Hockey: Gretzky, Sandstrom and Granato reunited in 5-2 victory over Sabres. Los Angeles catches Calgary for lead in Smythe Division.

In December, the Kings were as cold as the Arctic chill that whipped through Southern California.

Tomas Sandstrom didn’t play because of a fractured back. Tony Granato didn’t play because of a strained rib cartilage. And the Kings didn’t play too well, winning only three games all month, allowing the Calgary Flames to pull away with the Smythe Division lead.

Hello, January.

Hello, Sandstrom and Granato.

Hello, Flames.

With Granato rejoining Sandstrom and Wayne Gretzky on the first line Thursday night, the Kings won their fifth consecutive game, beating the Buffalo Sabres, 5-2, before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005.

The win not only improved the Kings to 24-14-5, but enabled them to move back into a tie for the division lead with Calgary, 5-1 losers to the Pittsburgh Penguins Thursday night.

“It’s nice,” Gretzky said. “Let’s face it. We were in a skid that looked like we were going to skid right off the map. It seemed like we were getting farther and farther toward the back. But we really didn’t lose sight of first place. In the past, we’d fall 13 points behind. We stayed five to six points out the whole stretch. Now it’s very gratifying being tied with a game in hand.”

Out 10 games, Granato was determined to make up for lost time Thursday.

That he did, in practically no time at all.

Granato scored his 15th goal from the slot only 21 seconds into the game.

“It was like the first game of the season for me,” Granato said. “But I felt real comfortable.”

Did he ever dream he’d return in such dramatic fashion?

“You never know with Gretz out there,” Granato said. “He makes things happen. He batted the puck out of the air and made a pass behind his back to get it to me.”

Granato may have downplayed his contribution, but teammate John McIntyre certainly didn’t.

“When Tony goes out there and scores on the first shift like that,” he said, “that pumps us all up. To get a goal right away like that really knocked the wind out of them. They were pretty much on their heels for the rest of the game.”

With Granato reunited with Gretzky and Sandstrom for the first time in more than a month, the trio quickly returned to the form that enabled them to score nearly half the Kings’ goals before injuries broke them up.

Sandstrom scored his 20th and 21st goals. And Gretzky extended his league-leading point total to 82 with four assists.

Dave Taylor added his 13th goal and Bob Kudelski his 15th to give their team a 5-0 lead with just under four minutes to play in the second period.

The Kings accomplished all that on only 10 shots.

That was enough for Buffalo Coach Rick Dudley, who pulled goalie Clint Malarchuk and replaced him with Daren Puppa.

The Kings didn’t score again, but the margin proved too great for Buffalo to make up.

After holding the opposition to one goal in seven periods, King goalie Daniel Berthiaume gave up two third-period goals to Buffalo, Rick Vaive’s 16th and Dale Hawerchuk’s 13th.

Buffalo outshot the Kings, 30-21, but it wasn’t enough as the Kings snapped the Sabres’ season-high unbeaten streak at eight games (5-0-3).

Overall, Buffalo fell to 16-17-10.

King Notes

King Coach Tom Webster, hit with flu, went home in the second period. Wing Luc Robitaille, also suffering from flu, played. . . . Wayne Gretzky attempted to fly to the NHL meetings in Phoenix earlier this week to provide input on the wishes of the players, but his flight was canceled because of fog in the Phoenix area.

Although they sold out only two of their first seven games, the Kings have become a hot item again as they were last season when they sold out 31 of 40 home dates. The Kings have sold out nine games in a row and 17 of their 23 overall. . . . Center Sylvain Couturier is back with the Kings’ Phoenix Roadrunner farm team after playing two games with the big club. He was recalled last week because of injuries to Todd Elik and Steve Kasper. . . . Elik was scratched from Thursday’s game by Webster, Scott Bjugstad taking his place as center on the second line. . . . Injuries have sidelined Sabre right wing Donald Audette (knee) and defenseman Uwe Krupp (foot).