It’s Not Kings Who Pay Penalty

Fresh off one of their best trips in years, the Kings continued their strong play Thursday night with a 5-2 victory over the struggling Tampa Bay Lightning before an announced 10,761 at the Forum.

Glen Murray scored two goals for the second consecutive game. Ian Laperriere, Sandy Moger and Yanic Perreault also scored and Rob Blake and Vladimir Tsyplakov each added two assists.

The Kings, who moved above .500 for the first time this season at 7-6-4, received a standout performance from goaltender Stephane Fiset, who made 33 saves to extend his unbeaten streak to five games.

It wasn’t pretty. There were many fights in the last two periods, with the Kings called for 25 penalties for 96 minutes, and Tampa Bay whistled 24 times for 99 minutes.

“We’re lucky to come out of this one without anyone hurt,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “Anyone on their team that’s injured probably deserved it. This is not one that we’re going to keep.”

The Lightning lost its fifth game in a row and extended its winless streak to a franchise-record 11 games. The Lightning, which has only six points this season at 2-11-2, had to play without top scorer Dino Ciccarelli, who is scheduled for elbow surgery next week.

Despite Tampa Bay’s problems, the Kings did not take the ice overconfident after going 3-1-1 on a recent trip that included victories over the Lightning, Detroit and New Jersey.

“Historically, the first game after a road trip has always been difficult for us,” General Manager Dave Taylor said. “And, I’ve always felt that a team [like Tampa Bay] is most dangerous. This [was] a game that we [had] to have.”

The Kings took the game’s first penalty when Perreault was called for holding the stick of Tampa Bay’s Jeff Toms following a faceoff in the Kings’ zone at 4:45.

But that only set the stage for the Kings’ first short-handed goal of the season when Laperriere gathered in an assist from Sean O’Donnell and beat Lightning goalie Corey Schwab on a breakaway at 6:07.

The Kings had a chance to extend their lead shortly after Laperriere’s second score of the season when Tampa Bay’s Karl Dykhuis was called for slashing at 8:51.

The Kings’ power play, however, was ineffective and that started a stretch of listless play that ended when the Lightning’s Mikael Renberg snuck the puck pass Fiset at 11:54.

Renberg actually was slowed on the play by King defenseman Doug Zmolek, but his shot hit off the side of the net and bounced off the back of Fiset to tie the score at 1-1.

Neither team really threatened to score the rest of the first period, but they did exchange more slashing and roughing penalties. That set the tone for the second period as the contest turned into more of an ongoing brawl than a hockey game.

The teams combined for 59 penalties in the second period alone as the frustrated Lightning tried to shake up the Kings. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, the Kings were able to take a 2-1 lead 7:31 into the period when, on a five-on-three power play, Murray deflected a blue-line shot by Blake for his first goal of the game.

“Things are going well, playing with [Tsyplakov and Perreault],” Murray said. “I’m going to the net and I’m getting open.”

The Kings took a two-goal lead at 15:45 on a four-on-four situation. Murray scored his seventh goal of the season on a rebound follow of a blocked shot by Tsyplakov.

Moger, who had suffered an injured left wrist from a first-period slash, gave the Kings a 4-1 lead with 2:49 to play in the period when he made a backhand deflection of a slap shot by Blake for his third goal of the season.

Tampa Bay, which had won four in a row over the Kings before this season, scored a power-play goal by Brian Bradley 1:49 into the third period and Perreault scored off an assist from Tsyplakov at 12:26 to finish the scoring.

Robinson liked Fiset’s performance.

“Stephane is on the top of his game right now, and that’s one nice thing,” Robinson said. “He was in control the whole game.”

The Lightning is 0-4 under interim Coach Rick Paterson.