It’s Ugly, but It’s a Point : Hockey: Kings don’t play well, but Granato, Donnelly and Kurri score and they earn a tie with Winnipeg, 3-3.

The Kings can take some satisfaction from Saturday night’s 3-3 tie with the Winnipeg Jets.

It could have been a lot of worse.

And for 40 minutes it was.

Showing the same offensive stagnation and lack of intensity they demonstrated in losing to Calgary, 7-1, in their last game, the Kings struggled dismally Saturday against a club they had dominated only a week ago.

With both Rob Blake (shoulder sprain) and Charlie Huddy (groin pull) lost on defense and offensive star Tomas Sandstrom slapped with a game misconduct penalty in the second period, it didn’t look too promising for the Kings, who trailed, 2-0, after two periods.

But, sparked by a short-handed goal by Tony Granato in the opening minute of the third period, the Kings rallied, much to the delight of the sellout crowd of 16,005.

“The goal by Granato really got us going,” said Coach Tom Webster. “We were just flat, totally flat.”

Webster, so exasperated with Thursday night’s performance he bruised a toe kicking his foot in anger, took action Saturday to see that it didn’t happen again. In the second period, he moved Mike Donnelly to the Wayne Gretzky-Jari Kurri line, Sandstrom onto a line with Granato and John McIntyre and Dave Taylor onto the Bob Kudelski-Luc Robitaille line.

Did that help?

“It didn’t hurt,” Granato said. “Whether we’re a little complacent or just looking for the other guy to do it, who knows?”

The Kings are 2-1-2, Winnipeg, 2-2-1. Daniel Berthiaume, getting his second start in goal and his first since opening night, stopped 28 shots. Bob Essensa, in the net for the Jets, turned away 27 shots.

With the Kings again starting slowly, Winnipeg struck first, Troy Murray’s third goal and Mike Eagles’ first giving them the early 2-0 lead.

The Kings cut the margin in half while killing the five-minute major on Sandstrom. Sandstrom received the penalty for jumping on the back of Winnipeg defenseman Randy Carlyle behind the Jet net. As Sandstrom did so, the butt end of his stick smashed Carlyle above the right eye, opening a cut that required a dozen stitches to close.

But the King penalty killers denied the Jets, holding them to four shots.

At the other end, Essensa blocked Peter Ahola’s shot, but the puck bounced off to the right side. From there, Granato drilled it past Essensa for his third goal of the season, only 48 seconds into the final period.

It was Granato’s second short-handed goal. The Kings have scored one in each of the last three games.

At 5:22, they struck again, Gretzky operating in his old spot behind the net, where he hasn’t been in much this season. From there, he slid a pass through the slot to Donnelly on the right side. Donnelly’s second goal of the season tied the game, 2-2.

Gretzky was at it again a little over a minute later when he dumped the puck into the crease. From there, Robitaille slid it over to Kurri on the right, and Kurri responded by going over Essensa for his fourth goal of the season at 6:51 to give the Kings the lead, 3-2.

Mike Hartman, obtained Friday by Winnipeg in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres, scored his first goal over Berthiaume’s stick at 8:02 and it was 3-3.

King Notes

Entering play Saturday, the Kings’ most consistent unit had been the penalty killers. The Kings had killed off 27 of 29 power plays, a 93.1% success rate that puts them second in the league behind the Pittsburgh Penguins. . . . All three of the players acquired by the Jets in Friday’s trade with the Buffalo Sabres--defensemen Dean Kennedy and Darrin Shannon and wing Mike Hartman--saw action Saturday.