Kings’ Shots, Streak Stopped by Penguins : Hockey: With new players, Pittsburgh uses a defensive style and it pays off, 3-2. L.A. now only a point ahead of Calgary.

At the end, they made their stand in front of the net, Penguins standing skate to skate as the Kings made their last charge.

When the whistle finally blew, it looked like a football pileup. And when the bodies were separated, there was the puck, dead on the ice away from the net.

The new-look Pittsburgh defense had held. The new-look Penguins had beaten the Kings, 3-2, Thursday night before a sellout Civic Arena crowd of 16,164.

Although it was the first time the Kings (39-21-8) had lost after going 7-0-1 over their past eight, the defeat was a big one. Coupled with the Calgary Flames’ victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, it reduced the Kings’ Smythe Division lead to one point over Calgary with 12 games to play.

Admittedly it was only one game for Pittsburgh. Without question, the Penguins have a long way to go to prove they can play good defense, considering they have surrendered a Patrick Division-high 260 goals.

But there is a real hope now that they have put that shoddy defensive play behind them with Monday’s huge trade with the Hartford Whalers. Pittsburgh sent high-scoring center John Cullen, Zarley Zalapski and Jeff Parker to the Whalers for defensive star Ulf Samuelsson, fellow defender Grant Jennings and defensive-minded center Ron Francis.

Tuesday, in their first outing with the new cast, the Penguins beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1.

But the weak Canucks weren’t considered a fair test.

The Kings were.

And, against the highest-scoring team in the league entering play Thursday, the Penguins played uncharacteristically stiff defense. Goalie Tom Barrasso blocked 34 of 36 shots. And between Barrasso and the defensemen, there were few rebounds to shoot at, few bouncing pucks to keep alive.

“They played completely different,” King wing Tony Granato said. “They hit people, and there were not many loose pucks. People cleared the puck out. They played hungry.”

There was more caution in the Pittsburgh clubhouse.

“It could be too early to say this is the answer,” center Randy Gilhen said. “Defense is five guys on the ice.”

New team or old, a Pittsburgh victory on home ice is hardly news. This was the Penguins’ 11th consecutive victory at Civic Arena, two more than the previous record.

Overall, they improved to 34-30-4 to slip past Philadelphia into second place in the division.

It was the Kings who had the early lead. Wayne Gretzky connected on a 40-foot shot from the center to open the scoring. It was his team-high 38th goal, but his first in five games.

Pittsburgh came back to tie on Bob Errey’s 19th goal and went ahead on Kevin Stevens’ goal.

Before the period was over, Granato’s 26th goal, on a power play, had tied the score.

And that’s the way it stayed until 3:16 into the final period.

With Tomas Sandstrom in the penalty box for hooking Phil Bourque, Paul Coffey took a shot that King goalie Kelly Hrudey blocked.

But as Hrudey fell to his knees and the puck fell into the slot, back came Stevens.

“It was barely rolling when I got there,” he said. “I was lucky enough to get some wood behind it.”

Enough to flip it over Hrudey’s glove as the King goalie watched helplessly on his knees.

It was Stevens’ second goal of the night and 31st of the season.

Pittsburgh’s new defense was put to the extreme test at the end. The Penguins had to kill off three penalties in the final period, leaving the Kings one for five on power plays.

And, after pulling Hrudey with 1:01 to play, the Kings kept the puck in the Pittsburgh zone, denying the open-net goal.

Mario Lemieux appeared to get one, but it was disallowed when it was ruled he received the puck on a glove pass from Errey.

With 22 seconds to play, Granato’s shot resulted in the last-ditch pile-up.

And finally, on the final tick of the clock, Steve Duchesne fired from the left point, only to have the puck smothered in front of the net by, fittingly enough, Francis.

A new Penguin.

And, perhaps, a new beginning.

King Notes

Wayne Gretzky extended his point-scoring streak to 14 games. His assist on Tony Granato’s goal gave him 100 for the season, his 11th consecutive year in triple figures. He has collected at least one assist in 14 consecutive games, three short of his NHL record. . . . Gretzky was given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, rare for him, after arguing with referee Rob Shick about a roughing penalty against Tomas Sandstrom.