Kings in Good Standing

The Kings accomplished their goal of getting at least three points from a three-game trip when they concluded it with a 2-2 tie against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night before 17,499 at the Kiel Center.

Jozef Stumpel had a goal and an assist, and Luc Robitaille had a goal for the Kings, who finished the trip 1-1-1 and improved to 11-9-5 overall. After defeating Colorado on Sunday and losing at Dallas Wednesday night, the Kings skated away with a point from a game filled with unusual plays.

“It was a real weird game,” King defenseman Sean O’Donnell said. “[I will] probably remember [King goaltender] Freddie [Chabot] sprawling around like a fish out of water when he was all cramped up.”

Chabot, making his fourth start of the season, suffered severe leg cramps with nearly three minutes remaining in regulation.

With St. Louis on a power play, Chabot knotted up after a scramble around the King net. The Blues had the puck when the game was stopped because Chabot was unable to stand, lying on his side in the crease.

“Freddie did a great job tonight, except at the end he got a little tired and started to cramp up,” King Coach Larry Robinson said of Chabot, who made 24 saves. “A lot like what happened to [Stephane Fiset] last year. . . . In the middle part of the second period, Freddie mentioned that he was starting to cramp up. He took some fluids but it caught up with him.”

Fiset, who played against Dallas on Wednesday but was replaced by Chabot midway in the third period, came in and made a couple of saves to help the Kings end a losing streak of three games at the Kiel Center.

“This was a big game for us because we were playing back-to-back games and we had a tough game in Dallas,” King left wing Craig Johnson said. “We showed that we can rebound. We played a strong hard game. It took a lot of effort from the guys and a lot of character.”

A key for the Kings was their ability to shut down the Blues’ Brett Hull, who scored three goals in a 3-2 overtime win against them in October. Hull, who had 31 goals and 47 points in 38 games against the Kings before Thursday, was held to only an assist by the King checking line of center Ray Ferraro and wingers Steve McKenna and Johnson.

“Ray got us together and took control of the line and said that we had a job to do,” McKenna said. “We added some energy and got things going. It’s easy to follow Ray’s lead.”

Hull’s frustration peaked early in the third period when after he was hooked by Stumpel, he retaliated and drew a high-sticking penalty. After nearly two minutes of protesting, Hull also got a 10-minute misconduct penalty.

Chabot, who did not give up a goal in facing seven shots at Dallas, fell behind in the first period just as he had in his other three starts. He gave up a power-play goal to center Pierre Turgeon, who scored his first goal of the season at 13:51.

The King offense finally got going in the second period when--after a successful penalty kill--Stumpel scored at 5:42. Ian Laperriere started the play when he stole the puck from Steve Duchesne and passed to Rob Blake in the slot. Blake then found Stumpel, who beat Grant Fuhr from the left circle for his eighth goal.

With regular linemate Sandy Moger not in uniform because of a rib injury, Stumpel and Robitaille played well with Russ Courtnall at right wing. Stumpel recorded his team-leading 28th point later in the period when he made a no-look backhand pass from the top of the left circle to Robitaille, who scored from the slot to give the Kings a 2-1 lead at 9:13.

The Kings had several chances to increase the lead but were denied by Fuhr, who made 27 saves. The Blues tied it on Pavol Demitra’s goal at 2:22 of the third period.

“We picked up our intensity a little bit and finished our checks tonight,” O’Donnell said. “When we hit guys, we play so much better.”