Kings Won’t Throw It Back

With every victory, the Kings keep moving closer to clinching their first playoff spot in five years, but it’s a good thing that they are not judged on their quality of play.

Tuesday night, the Kings won their second consecutive game, but the 4-3 victory over the San Jose Sharks definitely was not a thing of beauty.

Before 17,483 at San Jose Arena, Craig Johnson scored the winning goal with 8:37 to play in a bizarre third period as the Kings blew a two-goal lead only to escape with a victory thanks to 28 saves by goaltender Jamie Storr.

Yanic Perreault, Vladimir Tsyplakov and Rob Blake also scored for the Kings, who are 33-25-11 overall and 13-13-8 on the road.

“Overall, I’m happy with the wins, but looking at the long haul, I don’t think right now that we’re playing well enough for the playoffs,” King Coach Larry Robinson said.

“There are some small areas we need work on, but unfortunately, we don’t have much time to work on them. We’ll have to do it in games instead of in practice.”

For the Sharks, Tuesday night’s game signaled the start of their playoff stretch run and they had to do so without two key players picked up hours before the trade deadline.

Right wing Joe Murphy, acquired from St. Louis, and defenseman Bryan Marchment, acquired from Tampa Bay, were not in uniform because of travel problems, but the Sharks hope that they will be able to give them a boost over the final month of the season.

With the Sharks in ninth place in the Western Conference--three points behind eighth-place Edmonton--and facing an upcoming six-game trip that includes five games against playoff-bound teams (Kings, Dallas, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Ottawa), this week may determine their postseason fate.

That’s why the Sharks started the game playing with more of a sense of urgency than the Kings. For most of the opening period, San Jose appeared to control play, but the Kings seemed to score the game’s first goal.

Tsyplakov had his wraparound attempt called a goal by referee Paul Stewart at 16:34, but video replay judge Mike Shanley ruled that the puck did not completely cross the goal line.

San Jose didn’t need long to take advantage of the reprieve when Jeff Friesen, who had been sidelined because of a shoulder injury, scored a short-handed goal at 17:44 to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead.

Tsyplakov finally was able to tie the score for the Kings when he knocked in a rebound of a shot by Aki Berg with 2:49 remaining in the period. It was Tsyplakov’s 17th of the season.

The Kings jumped out to a 3-1 lead early in the third period when Blake scored his career-high 21st goal from the blue line at 1:09.

Less than two minutes later, Perreault scored his 25th--also a career high--on a breakaway after Blake poked the puck free from San Jose’s Al Iafrate on the Sharks’ power play.

San Jose made it 3-2 when Iafrate--playing for the first time in 33 games because of a knee injury--scored a power play goal that deflected off the skate of King defenseman Mattias Norstrom and past Storr at 4:39.

The Kings continued to struggle defensively and the Sharks were able to tie the score, 3-3, when Owen Nolan scored on a wraparound at 9:16.