Kings’ Tactics Work

To prove a point, King Coach Larry Robinson made his team skate full speed for 45 seconds at the end of Monday’s practice. When they were done, Robinson told his exhausted players that most of their recent mental mistakes happened because of lengthy shifts.

On Tuesday night, the Kings’ shorter shifts paid off in the third period when they wore down the New York Islanders for a 3-2 victory before an announced crowd of 9,222 at the Forum.

Luc Robitaille scored the game-winner with 6:51 remaining on a perfect give-and-go with Vladimir Tsyplakov less than five minutes after New York had tied the score at 2-2.

“When I looked at the ice time [in the Kings’ 3-2 overtime loss to Edmonton on Sunday] we had too many giveaways because guys were on the ice too long,” said Robinson, whose team improved to 3-4-3. “The guys were getting caught out on long shifts and we can’t have that with the way we want to play. We want short, all-out shifts and I think I proved to the guys with [their 45-second skate] that they can’t do that [staying on the ice].”

Shorter shifts and fresher legs helped the Kings late in the third period as they were able to kill off a key New York power play.

The Kings, who also got goals from Philippe Boucher and Craig Johnson, came through with a strong defensive effort for goaltender Frederic Chabot, who earned the first NHL victory of his career.

Chabot, who had a 0-2-3 record in 10 NHL games since 1990, made 26 saves, including several key stops late in the third period.

“[Chabot] came up big for us in the third [period],” Robitaille said. “He’s played pretty well for us. He played well in his first game [a 3-3 tie at Carolina] too. We’re just real happy for him to get his first win.”

With the victory, the Kings improved to 3-2 on their current six-game homestand, with their final game Thursday against the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.

“Right now, we’ll take a win any way we can,” Robinson said. “We’ve lost enough of those close ones.”

For the eighth time in 10 games, the Kings failed to score before their opponent. On Tuesday, it was the Islanders’ Zigmund Palffy who put the Kings behind when he scored on a two-on-one break 4:45 into the game.

It was Palffy’s fifth goal of the season and the 14th first-period goal by a King opponent this season.

For the first half of the period, the Kings continued to struggle against the Islanders’ speed, but as the game wore on, they began to take control.

The Kings held a 10-9 shots-on-goal edge after the first period. In the second, their constant pressure began to pay dividends. Left wing Craig Johnson, one of the Kings’ best-conditioned players, set up the first goal when he skated untouched into the Islander zone and made a great pass to Boucher, who scored from the right circle to tie the score, 1-1, 1:38 into the period.

Less than two minutes later, the Kings scored their second goal after a heads-up play by defenseman Garry Galley, who kept the puck in the Islander zone.

Galley, who has eight assists in his last seven games, had his slap shot from the blue line blocked by New York goaltender Eric Fichaud, but Johnson was there to whack in a goal from the left circle at 3:30 to give the Kings a 2-1 lead.

In the third period, the Kings continued to dominate play, but Fichaud kept the puck out of the net with several solid saves. New York made the most of its extra chances at the 10:21 mark when Kenny Jonsson was credited with a goal, thanks to the Kings’ Doug Zmolek.

Chabot had made a pad save on Jonsson’s shot from the blue line, but Zmolek was tripped by New York’s Tom Chorske and fell into the crease, knocking the loose puck under Chabot and into the net to tie the score at 2-2.

Instead of playing for their fourth tie of the season, the Kings stepped up their play and Robitaille scored his fifth goal of the season at 13:09 to give the Kings the victory.

“We battled all night,” Robitaille said. “We all kept our shifts a little shorter and played harder.”

On Thursday, the Kings will test their new approach against Detroit.

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Ducks 4, Phoenix 3. Sean Pronger scored 2:02 into the third period to give Anaheim a victory. C4