Storr, Kings Are Rolled Over by Quick-Strike Penguins, 5-1

Jamie Storr had been on a roll, though he wouldn’t admit it, didn’t want to admit it actually. Not because of any superstition, but because he knew it would end sometime. Rolls always do.

His did Saturday night, and against the team that had helped it begin.

Pittsburgh got goals from Ian Moran and Jaromir Jagr 51 seconds apart in the first period of a 5-1 victory at the Great Western Forum, ending the Kings’ five-game unbeaten streak.

Storr, who had won six games in a row, was the victim and was largely alone in his plight. The King goalie had little support from his defense.

“One of the things people don’t realize is that it’s not my shutout, it’s the team’s shutout,” Storr said.

Conversely, it’s not just his debacle, but a shared one.

Storr has three shutouts in 17 games this season. One of those came at Pittsburgh on Dec. 22, 3-0. It was the second game of a run in which Storr won eight of nine games after poor outings against the New York Islanders and St. Louis.

And then came Saturday.

“I don’t look at it as a roll,” he said Saturday morning before facing the Penguins. “I can’t. If I don’t look at one game at a time, I can have problems. When I win six games in a row, it feels like it’s been only five days. If I lose two in a row, it feels like two months.”

Saturday night might well have felt like a year.

The Kings were held shotless for the first nine-plus minutes, balancing that by holding Pittsburgh to a single shot.

Shot No. 2 by the Penguins was by Moran, who fired away from the right wing, beating defenseman Rob Blake--who was skating his second consecutive shift on a power play--and netting a short-handed effort at 10:39 for a 1-0 lead.

The Kings are 2-18-1 when an opponent scores first.

Jagr’s goal made it 2-0 and is the reason he earns big money. It also is the reason that 16,005--the fourth sellout of the season at the Forum--paid to see him, many of them wishing he would stick around long enough to trade sweaters with a King or two. Most of them also seranaded the Kings with boos at evening’s end.

Jagr took the puck at about the King blue line, jitterbugged past Donald Audette, faked Blake closer in and got a screen from a gaggle of players who were standing in front of the crease.

Storr had no chance.

And Pittsburgh had begun a new streak.

Until losing at Phoenix on Wednesday, the Penguins were 47-0-6 with a two-period lead under Coach Kevin Constantine. Until losing at San Jose on Friday, the Penguins were 6-0 in California with him in charge.

Andrew Lang helped make certain the Penguins would win with a second-period goal on a power play, taking a pass from Alexei Kovalev, who was behind the goal. Lang was unhindered by a King defenseman when he made it 3-0.

That was countered by Garry Galley’s first goal of the season, scored on a King power play when he took a pass from Sean O’Donnell and fired from long-range.

No problem for Pittsburgh, which added Jan Hrdina’s goal later in the period, again scored largely unhindered by the defense and sailing past Storr.

Kevin Hatcher’s third-period goal, scored on a power play, was no easier, coming on a rebound after Storr had rejected a shot.

Hatcher’s shot was only the 14th Pittsburgh had sent goalward. Storr had seen about 10 of them.