Kings Put Cats Out for Night

For weeks, the Kings have talked about putting together a lengthy winning streak to separate themselves from the lower-level teams in the Western Conference.

After Thursday night’s 3-1 victory over the Florida Panthers, the Kings may finally be on one as they won their season-high fourth consecutive game before an announced crowd of 12,920 at the Great Western Forum.

Goaltender Jamie Storr overcame a shaky start and finished with 28 saves as he improved to 3-2. Yanic Perreault, Glen Murray and Craig Johnson scored goals for the Kings, who moved two games over .500 at 21-19-8. Last season, the Kings did not record 50 points until their 62nd game.

King Coach Larry Robinson believes his team still needs to double the streak.

“It’s a start . . . but I’m talking about putting together a good one, like some of the better teams in the league are doing,” he said. “Seven, eight or nine in a row without a loss are the [streaks] that will separate you from the pack.”

The win extended the Kings’ lead over Chicago for sixth place in the Western Conference to three points and put them seven points ahead of eighth-place Edmonton.

“Everybody is so clustered together,” Johnson said. “If you don’t win games, you can drop all the way down. . . . But if we continue to win, we can climb all the way up to the fifth or maybe the fourth spot. We need these games. They are huge.”

Making crisper passes, the Kings got off to one of their best starts of the year.

With Ray Ferraro sidelined because of a lower back-injury he suffered before the the game, center Perreault took full advantage of playing on a line with wingers Luc Robitaille and Russ Courtnall.

Perreault, who had only two goals in his previous 13 games, had been given less playing time because Robinson liked the chemistry with Ferraro and Robitaille on the same line with either Sandy Moger or Courtnall. He also liked having Jozef Stumpel centering a line with wingers Vladimir Tsyplakov and Glen Murray.

Perreault gave the Kings a 1-0 lead early in the first period when he scored his team-high 20th goal from the right side in front of the crease at 5:21. Defenseman Garry Galley had drawn the Florida defense to him at the left circle but instead of shooting found Perreault wide open. The Kings are now 16-1-1 in games in which they score first.

They continued to dominate play and had outshot the Panthers, 6-0, when Murray scored what turned out to be the game winner on a rebound at the 8:07 mark. Stumpel and Tsyplakov assisted on the goal.

Florida (0-5-4 in its last nine games) finally got on the scoreboard with 11 seconds remaining on its first power-play opportunity. Viktor Kozlov, acquired in a trade from San Jose earlier this season, scored his first goal for the Panthers when he beat Storr from the slot at 12:09.

“It was a little bit scary in the first, when their first shot is a guy shooting from the slot,” Storr said. “But the guys played well defensively, and it worked out well.”

After giving Florida three man-advantage situations in the first period, the Kings were more disciplined and stayed out of the penalty box in the second.

Although they failed to score on their two power plays in the period, the Kings did manage to take their second two-goal lead of the game at 5:01. Thanks to a nice hustle plays by Dan Bylsma, Nathan LaFayette and Rob Blake, Johnson scored from the left circle for his 10th goal.

“We need balanced scoring. Luc is a big goal scorer, but other than him we need everybody to contribute,” Johnson said. “Getting guys to chip in with goals is what we need.”