Stastny Shows Devils How to Win at Forum : Kings: He scores his 400th goal as New Jersey gets only its second victory in Inglewood, 4-2.

As he began his 11th NHL season, and his first full year with the New Jersey Devils, Peter Stastny needed 15 goals to reach 400.

How long will it take, his family wanted to know.

“I’ll have it by Christmas,” he promised.

Christmas came and went and so did New Year’s and still there was no cause for celebration.

On Monday, he got No. 399. On Wednesday, before leaving for the Forum to face the Kings, he got a call from his brother, Anton, in Switzerland.

“You will get it tonight,” Anton told him. “You always do well in Los Angeles.”

Anton not only called his brother. He called the shot as well.

Peter Stastny became the 32nd man to score 400 NHL goals Wednesday night, and it turned out to be the game-winner as well, as the Devils beat the Kings, 4-2, before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005.

“I know how to celebrate here,” Stastny said afterward, recalling the moment in 1986 when he was part of a Quebec Nordique club that clinched the Adams Division title in this building.

His new club, the Devils, haven’t had much to celebrate at the Forum. In their 17-year history, they had won only once in 30 games here, going 1-23-6.

This hardly looked like the breakthrough year.

New Jersey’s hockey team has been having a devil of a time just getting noticed.

The team next door in the Meadowlands just won the Super Bowl.

The Devils’ hockey counterparts across the Hudson River, the New York Rangers, are leading the Patrick Division.

And after suffering through a recent 11-game winless streak (0-7-4), the Devils are just hoping to hold off the Washington Capitals for the final Patrick playoff spot.

Troubling times.

And it didn’t figure to get any easier Wednesday night against a King team that had won four in a row at home.

But thanks to Stastny and the goaltending of Chris Terreri, who stopped 32 of 34 shots, the Devils won here for the first time since the 1985-86 season.

The loss dropped the Kings to 28-18-5, and lowered their division lead to two points over the Calgary Flames, who beat the Rangers Wednesday night.

New Jersey improved to 22-21-10.

It was the Kings who scored first, the goal set up on a great pass involving Wayne Gretzky. This time, Gretzky was on the receiving end, defenseman Steve Duchesne threading the puck through two defenders to Gretzky on the right side.

Gretzky never appeared to gain control, however, the puck lying on the ice as he skated past it. No matter. Tomas Sandstrom, coming in behind Gretzky, not only controlled the puck, but put it past Terreri on the glove side just 1:31 into the game for his 27th goal, second on the team to Gretzky.

Patrik Sundstrom of New Jersey matched Sandstrom’s effort, scoring his 10th goal at the 10:41 mark to tie the score.

Lee Norwood put the Devils ahead late in the period after taking a pass from Kirk Muller in the slot. Norwood’s 20-foot shot over the stick of King goalie Daniel Berthiaume at 18:31 gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead.

Rob Blake got the Kings even in the second period on a power play after Gretzky took a shot that was blocked by Terreri. The puck bounced behind the net, where Gretzky caught up with it and flung it back into the slot. From there, Blake was able to whip the puck over Terreri’s glove for his fifth goal of the season 6:36 into the second period, tying the score at 2-2.

Gretzky got the assist, boosting his league-leading point total to 100. In his 12 NHL seasons, he has never failed to reach triple figures in that department.

King Notes

KTLA (Channel 5) will show the Kings’ March 24 game at Edmonton. Prime Ticket carries most King games, but this is the team’s first game on a non-cable outlet since a 1985 telecast of a King-Oiler playoff game. Prime Ticket announcers Bob Miller and Jim Fox will call the game for KTLA. . . . King defenseman Tim Watters returned to the lineup after missing six games with a twisted knee. . . . The Kings entered play having given up an average of 3.18 goals per game, eighth best in the league. Last season, they allowed 4.17 per game to finish 18th in the 21-team league.