Dafoe’s Dream Is Kings’ Reality

Ever since he was traded from the Kings to Boston in August, goaltender Byron Dafoe envisioned playing against his former teammates in the Bruins’ regular-season opener.

Every dream went the same way. He would make save after save in leading his new team to victory as he paid the Kings back for dealing him away along with Dimitri Khristich for forwards Jozef Stumpel and Sandy Moger.

Dafoe finally got his chance against the Kings on Thursday night and, although he didn’t have the type of game he wanted, he made a key save in the final minute of regulation to preserve Boston’s 6-5 victory before 12,946 at FleetCenter.

After giving up five goals, Dafoe made up for his generosity by making a diving stop on the Kings’ Vladimir Tsyplakov with 57.6 seconds remaining. With goalie Stephane Fiset pulled, the Kings saw their best opportunity to send the game into overtime end when Dafoe recovered from a play behind the net to make the save.

“I dove as hard as I could and really I just shut my eyes and listened for the crowd,” said Dafoe, who was voted by his teammates as the Kings’ unsung hero last season.

“It was an ugly game for me because every envision I had about the game, I had us winning, 2-1, or something like that. But I’ve played enough games in this league to know that you can’t get down and that you have to keep playing.”

The Kings can only hope they can learn something from a game that saw them rally twice from two-goal deficits only to lose on a weird game-winning score by the Bruins’ Rob DiMaio in the third period.

King defenseman Mattias Norstrom was kicking the puck around in front of his own net, trying to clear away the rebound of a shot by Don Sweeney when DiMaio came up from behind and poked the puck between Norstrom’s legs and past Fiset.

“That was not a good goal,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “Steph did not have one his better games.

“We only gave them 11 scoring chances and they scored six goals. We have to get better goaltending than that. A major part of [Fiset’s problem] is that he played [Wednesday night] and I don’t think that he is in as good of shape he needs to be in. If he wants to play the majority of the games for us, which we expect him to do, he needs to be in better shape.”

In their second game in as many nights, the Kings--who ended up with a 3-3 tie at Pittsburgh on Wednesday--played like a tired team that didn’t check into its Boston hotel until nearly 3 a.m. Thursday.

“Maybe we were a little [fatigued] but that is not an excuse,” forward Ian Laperriere said. “We’re going to have get used to traveling like this because when you’re tired, you start not sticking to the system.”

As they did against the Penguins, the Kings found themselves trailing, 2-0, before they had a decent scoring chance. But after goals by Boston’s Steve Heinze and Kyle McLaren, the Kings answered with a goal by Brad Smyth to cut the Bruin lead to 2-1 at 8:46 of the first period.

Later in the period, the Kings tied the score on Glen Murray’s goal at 13:26, but Boston regained the lead when Khristich knocked in a pass from Ted Donato at 17:50.

Stumpel scored in the second period to tie the score again, 3-3. The goal was set up on a strong play by Craig Johnson, who fought off a Boston defender while skating behind the net before finding Stumpel in front of the crease.

Boston dominated the middle of the period and took a two-goal lead again on scores by rookie center Shawn Bates and forward Tim Taylor, who was claimed in the waiver draft from Detroit less than a week ago.

The Kings quickly responded with two goals to catch Boston at 5-5. Ray Ferraro was credited for one goal when a Dafoe blocked shot bounced off of him and Bruin Jason Allison into the net at 15:20. Luc Robitaille then tied the score with his second goal of the season on a two-on-one with Yanic Perreault at 16:04.

With the score tied after two periods, the Kings started the first half of the third flat as they were outshot, 9-1, including DiMaio’s game-winner.

The Kings will continue their five-game trip Sunday when they play the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden.