Seventh King Victory in a Row Tastes Sweet : Hockey: Sandstrom’s hat trick leads the way past Devils, 6-1, but Elik and Blake derive special satisfaction.

Vindication was the operative word Monday night at Meadowlands Arena.

Vindication for the Kings, who ended a two-year losing streak in this building with a 6-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils, highlighted by Tomas Sandstrom’s hat trick.

Vindication for slumping center Todd Elik, who celebrated his return to the lineup after two games on the scratch list with his 11th goal, but his first in 12 games.

Vindication for defenseman Rob Blake, who ended a 38-game scoreless streak with his third goal.

And continued vindication for the Kings’ penalty-killing unit, which has gone from irrelevant to nearly impenetrable in two weeks.

The result of all this vindication is a season-high seven-game winning streak that has moved the Smythe Division-leading Kings (26-14-5) into a four-point lead over the Calgary Flames.

Wayne Gretzky set the tone with his team-high 27th goal only 59 seconds into the game, and the Devils never recovered.

Sandstrom supplied the knockout blows, his third hat trick of the season giving him 25 goals, second only to Gretzky among the Kings.

But in terms of personal satisfaction, the goals by Elik and Blake were second to none.

Dissatisfied with Elik’s recent performance, Coach Tom Webster had benched him in favor of Bob Kudelski, who responded with a hat trick of his own Saturday night as center of the second line, skating between Luc Robitaille and Dave Taylor.

With Taylor getting Monday night off, Webster reinserted Elik at center and moved Kudelski to Taylor’s spot on the right wing.

Elik scored early in the second period, backhanding the puck past goalie Sean Burke, who had come on in relief of starter Chris Terreri at the start of the period.

“It’s good to score,” Elik said with a smile. “It’s good to contribute. I know I hadn’t scored in a while. I thought I was working hard all along on the other parts of my game. I just wasn’t scoring.

“I don’t know what’s going on. When we go to Hartford (where the Kings will play Wednesday), I may be out again.”

When asked about Elik’s immediate future, Webster replied, “That’s too far ahead to see.”

Elik conceded his forced inactivity hadn’t been easy to take.

“I tried to stay in it mentally,” he said. “I didn’t want to take it in a bad way. I wanted to convert it into something good.”

While Blake hadn’t been scratched for his failure to score, the 21-year-old defenseman conceded his slump had weighed heavily on his mind.

“Oh, geez,” he said, “it had been way too long. The equivalent of a whole college season had passed since I had scored.”

Blake was in college, at Bowling Green, at this time a year ago.

Based on his performance with the Kings at the end of last season, he had been expected to be a strong rookie of the year candidate this season. Gretzky compared him to Paul Coffey at 20.

Blake began this season where he ended the last. He scored in the third game. And the fourth.

And then . . .

Blake continued to have his moments on defense, but not on offense.

Finally, in the final second of the first period Monday night, he slapped the puck from the top of the left circle. With Terreri screened, Blake’s shot, a drive that never rose more than a couple of feet off the ice, flew past the New Jersey goalie.

“It was about time,” Blake said. “With the chances I’ve been getting, I had to get one. Sure, it bothered me, but I was not going to change my game.”

The Kings changed their game after their penalty-killing unit had nearly dissolved, stopping one power play in 15 tries.

Since the end of that dismal run, the numbers have been nearly reversed. The Kings shut out the Devils on six power plays. They have now killed all 15 against them in the last two games and 50 of 53 in the last seven games.

The loss was New Jersey’s sixth in a row, its longest slump since the 1985-86 season. The Devils are 0-6-3 in their last nine games. And overall, the Devils fell to 19-19-9.

When the public address announcer informed the crowd of 15,803 that there was only a minute to play, a sarcastic cheer went up.

For the Devils this night, there would be no vindication.

King Notes

Myles O’Conner scored the Devils’ only goal, his second of the season. . . . New Jersey managed only two shots on goal in the first period, but was outshot in the game by only 26-25. . . . King defenseman Dennis Smith was recalled from the New Haven Nighthawks.