It All Falls Into Place for the Kings

The Kings got what they needed Saturday night: an early goal from Jozef Stumpel.

And something they needed even more: a late goal from Stumpel.

They also got something they rarely get: a power-play goal.

They got something they can use more of: practice at protecting a third-period lead.

And most of all, they got some help in St. Louis, which made their 3-1 victory over Vancouver that much more meaningful to the alleged 14,348 at the Great Western Forum.

The victory pulled them to within five points of Calgary and the Oilers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 16 games to play and was the first thing resembling a move up the Kings have had in weeks.

Or, in this case, Weekes. Kevin Weekes was part of the deal that sent Pavel Bure to Florida, and the Vancouver goalie has yet to win in nine starts in the NHL. To try and bolster his confidence--and, perhaps, make the Bure deal look a bit better--Canuck Coach Marc Crawford is spotting Weekes against some of Vancouver’s softer opposition.

“We tried to make a valiant comeback, but we should have pushed ourselves harder earlier,” Crawford said. “We were a little guilty of thinking it was going to come easy. But we knew the Kings were going to play hard. They’re desperate.”

That they are, which is why Weekes spent two periods as a duck in a shooting gallery. The Kings pounded him with 34 shots in the first 40 minutes, then fell back to enjoy their offensive largess. For awhile, their enjoyment was excessive.

At the other end of the ice, Stephane Fiset was enjoying the view in moments of required consciousness. Fiset faced seven shots in the first period, only five in the second--a 20-minute segment in which the Kings had 19 shots--and watched his teammates play defense in the third.

He was tested only briefly over the first two periods, during a mini-barrage in which Markus Naslund and Murray Baron tried their luck, futilely, as it turned out.

In that third period, though, Fiset was tried by Naslund, whose 34th goal of the season cut the King lead to 2-1 and made sure that Fiset was kept on edge.

It also kept the Kings’ grip on the evening more than a little unsure.

That grip tightened with Stumpel’s second goal, scored after the Kings’ Craig Johnson pounded the puck away from Mattias Ohlund. Stumpel pounced on the loose puck and fired it past Weekes for his second goal of the game, enough, as it turned out, to ensure some comfort in the Kings’ second win in a row.

Stumpel’s first goal came only 1:42 into the game when Yanic Perreault took the puck away from Ohlund, pushed it to Donald Audette and got it back before finding Stumpel wide open. It was merely a matter of directing it past Weekes for a 1-0 lead, something the Kings tend to prosper with.

“[Ohlund] got knocked off the puck by Yanic Perreault,” said Crawford incredulously. “Yanic Perreault is not a giant.”

He’s not even a physical hockey player, but his play and that of Johnson won the praise of their coach, Larry Robinson, and their captain, Rob Blake.

“It wasn’t just the goals. It was the way they were scored,” Robinson said.

Added Blake: “It’s the way we have to play to win.”

Blake had held a players-only meeting on Thursday to emphasize just that point, and then told Robinson to leave the lineup alone as long as the Kings win. That they did Saturday for the second time in a row.

The second goal came when Philippe Boucher fired a power-play shot from the blue line. Audette was perhaps 20 feet in front of the goal and shortly thereafter threw his hands in the air to celebrate the red light going on.

Whether the puck went off Audette’s stick or the carcass of Vancouver defenseman Ed Jovanovski is a matter of conjecture and, statistically, little importance.