Perreault Is Up to Old Tricks

Days before the hockey season began, King General Manager Dave Taylor boasted the Kings could finish with at least five players with 20 goals. He didn’t mention a 50-goal scorer.

That would be the case if Yanic Perreault continues his torrid scoring pace. Tuesday night he recorded his second three-goal game of the season to lead the Kings to an 8-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks before 9,541 at the Forum.

Perreault’s second career hat trick gave him a team-high 12 goals, one more than he scored all last season. He scored three goals at Detroit less than two weeks ago.

“I think that the chemistry of our line [Vladimir Tsyplakov, Glen Murray and Perreault] is very good right now,” said Perreault, who added an assist and has 15 points. “We have three different styles of players. Murray is good along the boards and goes to the net, and [Tsyplakov] is an excellent passer. All I have to do is shoot the puck a little bit more.”

King Coach Larry Robinson often has told Perreault to shoot more and since he has put him with Murray and Tsyplakov, Perreault has been on fire. His 12 goals put him third in the league behind Teemu Selanne of the Mighty Ducks and John LeClair of Philadelphia.

“Larry wants me to shoot the puck four or five times a game and that’s what I am trying to do,” Perreault said. “I just have to find a way [to keep doing that].

“I don’t think [that I’m looking to score only] because I still have to play defense. But I’ve gained a lot of experience the last few years and I’m playing with a lot of confidence.”

In handing the Canucks their 10th consecutive loss, the Kings got several standout performances as they reached their highest goal total since they scored nine in a victory over the New York Islanders on Nov. 16, 1995.

Luc Robitaille had two goals and an assist and Tsyplakov and Craig Johnson each added a goal and an assist. Mattias Norstrom scored his fourth career goal--his first in 88 games--and Murray had three assists, giving him 10 points in his last six games.

The Kings, who moved back above .500 at 8-7-4 overall and 5-4 at home, also received a strong game from goaltender Stephane Fiset, who made 39 saves to improve to 4-1-1 in his last six starts.

The Kings started quickly. Perreault scoring 38 seconds into the game, the team’s earliest goal of the season. Murray and defenseman Sean O’Donnell assisted on the play.

Vancouver tied the score slightly more than eight minutes into the period when Brian Noonan scored on an assist from Bret Hedican with both teams having five men on the ice.

Later in the period, Norstrom scored his first goal since Oct. 12, 1996, when he slapped a shot from the right circle that bounced off the stick of Vancouver goalie Kirk McLean and into the net at 16:10. Dan Bylsma and Matt Johnson recorded assists.

In the second period, Robitaille extended the King lead to 3-1 but Vancouver’s Mark Messier scored a short-handed goal at 13:48. It was the first goal the Kings have given up while on the power play this season.

Craig Johnson’s sixth goal put the Kings ahead, 4-2, going into the third period and that’s when Perreault caught fire with goals sandwiched around Tsyplakov’s score.

Tsyplakov’s goal, seven seconds after Perreault’s second of the night, knocked McLean out of the game at the 3:46 mark in favor of Arturs Irbe. At that point, the Kings had scored on six of 19 shots. The were outshot by the Canucks, 41-25.

Defeating Vancouver was important to the Kings because they realize that to end a four-year playoff drought they must play better against fellow Western Conference opponents than they have in seasons past.

Last season, they won only 19 of 56 Western Conference games and Tuesday night’s was the first of seven in a row against Western opponents.

The Kings already have impressive wins over Detroit and Eastern Conference opponents New Jersey and Philadelphia.

“You have to be a team that can play any kind of style and we want to be that type of team,” Robinson said. “That’s why we went out and got a guy like Russ [Courtnall]. Because to play any kind of style you must have some speed.”