Kings Rule Penguins at Forum

Pittsburgh may not have had Mario Lemieux around Saturday night, but the Penguins’ supporting cast merely featured the league’s No. 2 scorer in Jaromir Jagr and No. 3 Ron Francis as well as a supernatural power play.

And the Kings?

Well, there was the Forum’s magic finding its way to King rookie left wing Vladimir Tsyplakov, who scored his first NHL goal in a fast-paced 3-2 victory over the Penguins before a sellout crowd of 16,005. As usual, there was another brilliant performance from goaltender Byron Dafoe, who made 41 saves.

But it shouldn’t have been surprising because the Kings simply don’t lose to the Penguins at the Forum anymore. They have defeated Pittsburgh nine consecutive times in Los Angeles and in 14 of the last 15 meetings here. The Penguins’ last victory at the Forum was Feb. 13, 1988.

Tsyplakov, the Kings’ third-round draft choice (59th overall) in 1995, signed a two-year contract a week ago and was playing in his second game. His third-period goal at 11:42, in front off a centering pass from Eric Lacroix, put the Kings ahead for good at 2-1.

Also scoring for the Kings was Vitali Yachmenev and Wayne Gretzky, who made an empty netter for his fourth of the season with 1:05 remaining. Gretzky also had an assist on Yachmenev’s first-period goal.

“It was a pretty gutsy effort on our part,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “They’re a pretty offensive team that really comes at you.

“I thought that was probably the best game I’ve seen Gretzky play in the last five or six years. He was playing with a lot of emotion.”

How do you stop the Penguins?

“A lot of times, teams over-respect the Penguins,” Robinson said. “And they give them a little too much time to make plays. You can’t give Jagr, Francis and [Tomas] Sandstrom that extra time. They’ve still got a tremendous amount of talent over there. It’s better for us not to face Mario. If they don’t want to play him against us, I’m not going to argue.”

Dafoe didn’t miss Lemieux either.

“I have to admit I had a smile on my face when I read it in the paper.” he said.

Lemieux, the league’s scoring leader, flew home to Pittsburgh after Friday night’s game in San Jose, choosing not to play in games on consecutive nights to protect his back.

But who would have thought the Kings would shut down the vaunted Penguin power play again. As for Jagr, the Kings almost kept him without a point--until the final 30 seconds when he helped set up Sandstrom’s goal to cut the King lead to 3-2.

But Dafoe kept the Penguins from scoring the equalizer, continuing his stellar play of late. Facing 43 shots was almost like a night off for him.

Dafoe, who has lost only once while facing an average of 46.4 shots in his last five starts, had the league’s fourth-best save percentage at .918, just behind Penguin goaltender Ken Wregett, who also played a strong game while facing 31 shots.

“The shots didn’t tell the story at all,” Dafoe said. “The biggest thing was that we contained Jagr. [Darryl] Sydor and [Sean] O’Donnell were on him all night.”

The Kings are one of two teams, along with Chicago, to hold the Penguins’ power play scoreless. They did it again by holding Pittsburgh scoreless in four power-play chances.

Heading into Saturday’s action, the Penguins had been capitalizing on the power play at an amazing rate--41.8% success. Toronto was second at 24.2, then Colorado at 24.1.

The Kings began the game with the 16th-rated penalty killing record.

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King Notes

King goaltender Kelly Hrudey’s rehabilitation assignment in Phoenix ended after one game when he pulled himself about 10 minutes into the third period on Friday. He had been scheduled to play again Saturday. “[The ankle] started to get weak and it was kind of sore when I got up today,” Hrudey said Saturday. “We’ll see how it is tomorrow. I’m close and I’ve made a ton of progress.” King General Manager Sam McMaster said that Hrudey will be examined Sunday and will remain activated. Hrudey, recovering from a torn ligament in his left ankle, believes he should be ready to return to action no later than a week from now. The injury has kept him out for more than two months. . . . Defenseman Philippe Boucher (tendinitis right wrist) had one goal and five shots on goal for the Roadrunners in the first game of his rehabilitation assignment. . . . The healthy scratches on Saturday were forwards Pat Conacher and Troy Crowder.