Players Out, but Kings Still Win, 5-2

Saturday was not shaping up as a great day for Bruce McNall.

Two hours before his Kings beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-2, at the Forum, McNall learned that two of his horses had lost races at opposite ends of the country.

And he then learned that the list of Kings lost to injury had grown large enough to deplete his defensive corps.

Add to that the absence of Wayne Gretzky, who is in Canada where his father underwent surgery Saturday, and the fact the Kings were playing a club that had won four of its last five games and it didn’t take a hot tip to figure out what would happen.

But unlike McNall’s horses, his hockey team raced to victory before a sellout crowd of 16,005.

A strong performance in goal by Daniel Berthiaume, a balanced scoring attack and a makeshift defense able to close ranks proved to be the keys.

In addition to Gretzky, the list of missing Kings includes center John McIntyre (sprained thumb) and defensemen Rob Blake (sprained shoulder), Charlie Huddy (groin pull), Jeff Chychrun (wrist surgery) and Larry Robinson (bruised shoulder), who was added to the list Saturday.

That left rookies Darryl Sydor, Peter Ahola and Rene Chapdelaine and seldom-used veteran Tim Watters to plug the holes.

Watters was thrilled. The 10-year veteran was briefly demoted to the Kings’ Phoenix farm team earlier this season.

“It feels great,” Watters said of his return to the lineup. “I just want to play, and I wasn’t getting the opportunity. I wasn’t happy being sent down, but it doesn’t do any good to worry about it. I just have to go out there and prove I can do the job.”

On the offensive side, Tony Granato’s fourth goal of the season and Bob Kudelski’s fifth gave the Kings a 2-0 lead after one period.

It was Kudelski’s fourth goal in two games, and he used the opportunity to respond to former King Bernie Nicholls, who said recently that he wanted to return to his old club.

“I know Bernie wanted to come back,” Kudelski said. “He said we didn’t have a center. Well, we do. He can go anywhere he wants, but he can’t come back here.”

Also scoring for the Kings were Jari Kurri (his fifth), Mike Donnelly (fourth) and Luc Robitaille (fifth). Neal Broten (second) and Ulf Dahlen (fifth) accounted for the North Stars’ goals.

The Kings improved to 4-1-2 and Minnesota dropped to 4-2.

The North Stars outshot the Kings, 27-20, but Berthiaume’s play in the net proved the equalizer.

Berthiaume’s shutout hopes were killed with the Kings’ penalty killers on the ice. That is news because the Kings had killed 37 of 39 power plays coming into the game for a 94.9% success rate, best in the league.

Now if McNall can just do something about those horses.

King Notes

Walter Gretzky, Wayne’s father, underwent five hours of surgery Saturday at a hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. The senior Gretzky, 53, suffered an aneurysm on the brain Wednesday. He is still in serious, but stable condition. It will probably be 48 hours before something more definitive is known. Wayne Gretzky had been considering coming back to L.A. for Saturday night’s game, then flying back immediately to Hamilton. But once the decision to operate was made, those plans were scrapped. The Kings don’t expect to see Gretzky back for at least a week. . . . John McIntyre, injured Wednesday, is skating in practice, but Coach Tom Webster wasn’t ready to put him back in the lineup. . . . Jeff Chychrun, who has yet to play after undergoing off-season surgery, might be ready to start practicing with the team on the upcoming trip. . . . This was the Kings’ final Forum appearance for nearly three weeks. The team leaves Monday on its longest trip of the season, a two-week, seven-game marathon that will take the Kings to New Jersey, New York, Long Island, Detroit, Hartford, Boston and Toronto. Their next home game will be Nov. 7 against the Vancouver Canucks.