Playoffs Begin Early for Kings, Who Will Miss Them Otherwise

After watching his team flounder since the All-Star break, King Coach Larry Robinson held a meeting Monday morning to stress that if the team is to reach postseason play, its playoffs have to start now.

“We realize that we have [now 29] games left and if we want to make the playoffs, we can’t lose too many more,” said King goaltender Stephane Fiset, who made 38 saves in a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday night. “And, from here on, every game is like a playoff game because most are against [Western Conference] opponents.”

The Kings were outshot, 41-19, but scored on three of their six shots in the second period to gain two needed points in their playoff push before 16,328 at the Saddledome.

Yanic Perreault scored the Kings’ third short-handed goal of the season and Eddie Olczyk and Kai Nurminen added power-play goals as the Kings won for the first time in four games against Calgary this season.

“I’ve been saying all along that if we only could get our power play going we’d have eight or 10 more points in the standings,” Robinson said. “We know that we can’t just sit there and hope for us to [make up ground] to make the playoffs. This is the nitty gritty and if the guys don’t play hard, they won’t play. Simple as that. We can’t afford not to follow through. This is not an idle threat.”

One player who came under attack from Robinson after the Kings’ 3-2 loss to Chicago on Saturday was captain Rob Blake, who made two costly turnovers in that game.

Against Calgary, Blake came out like a different player as he aggressively checked any Flame with the puck and ignited a determined defensive effort by the Kings.

“I’m still not where I want to be by any means, it’s been a struggle all year long for me,” said Blake, who has suffered numerous injuries the last couple of seasons, including a broken hand that kept him out of 11 games this season.

“I realize that when I do play well, it’s because of aggressiveness. It gets me in the game hitting. It’s been tough coming back after a couple of years to get the timing and the hits. I only can hope that offensively, things get going for me.”

The Kings’ win is even more impressive considering that they started the game without Ian Laperriere and Ray Ferraro, who were out with hip and neck injuries, respectively, and then lost Doug Zmolek (irregular heartbeat), Aki Berg (concussion) and Perreault (back) before the third period.

Down to only three lines and five defensemen, the Kings dug down and withstood a late charge by the Flames, who added a late second period goal by Steve Chiasson and a third-period score by Theoren Fleury.

“We showed lots of character tonight because of all of our injuries and our problems of late,” said Fiset, who recorded a shutout against the Flames in a 0-0 tie earlier this season. “The guys played a gutsy great game. . . . They just played great in front of me. I saw every shot coming in from the blue line. All I had to do was make the first save and they were there to clear any rebounds.”

After a scoreless first period, Perreault scored an unassisted short-handed goal 5:27 into the second period to give the Kings a 1-0 lead. After chasing down a loose puck in the neutral zone, Perreault weaved through the Flames’ defense and faked defenseman Chris O’Sullivan and goaltender Trevor Kidd to score from in front of the crease. It was the 14th short-handed goal given up by Calgary this season, most in the NHL.

The Kings then scored a power-play goal when Brad Smyth, who played well in his first extensive action in more than a month, made a perfect drop pass to Olczyk, who scored from the right circle to give the Kings a 2-0 lead at 10:52.

Nurminen then scored the Kings’ fourth power-play goal in their last four games when he whacked in a rebound of a slap shot by Mattias Norstrom to stretch their lead to 3-0 at 15:42. Nurminen was able to score from the slot thanks to teammate Kevin Stevens, who tied up Kidd and Chiasson in the crease.