Kings Get Defensive in Beating Avalanche

For two periods and much of the third, it was the hockey equivalent of a “punt, play defense and pray” football game, basketball without a shot clock.

The Kings got first-period goals from Ziggy Palffy and Marko Tuomainen, then did everything to protect the lead.

They held the puck when they could, chipped it out of harm’s way when they couldn’t, shot only when no other option presented itself and generally kept up their holding action for another night until some missing bodies healed.

The defensive offense earned them a 5-2 victory at Staples Center, mostly because Colorado was denied the puck as often as possible and had it in reasonable scoring range as infrequently as the Kings could manage.

Oh, and because goalie Jamie Storr stood tall by spending a fair amount of time sprawled between the puck and the King net.

The win was the Kings’ first in four games, though they earned ties in two of them. It also gave them a couple of points without a couple of their front-liners, Luc Robitaille and Jozef Stumpel, and without goalie Stephane Fiset.

The Kings that were left got an early boost from Palffy and Tuomainen, then a rare goal from Vladimir Tsyplakov in a second period in which they had only five shots.

The Avalanche had only six.

Len Barrie’s first NHL goal since 1995 made it 4-1 in the third period, and was countered by Colorado’s Jon Klemm. Tsyplakov scored his second goal later in the period to finish things, taking advantage of a sloppy clearing effort by Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy.

Palffy’s eighth goal came on a pass from Sean O’Donnell, who is wearing the “A” of alternate captain in Robitaille’s absence.

Palffy won control of the puck, worked it around to O’Donnell, who was near the blue line and he and the puck were lures to the Colorado defense, which for some reason forgot Palffy was still on the ice.

Its reminder came when what looked like a wide shot by O’Donnell found the stick of Palffy, who was lurking near Roy’s left shoulder.

The lead was 1-0 at 7:24, and it was doubled 52 seconds later when Tuomainen, playing with the fourth line, won a puck, circled a retreat, then squared to shoot it past Roy.

Colorado got half of that back when Chris Dingman beat O’Donnell to the puck and sent it back goalward. Storr’s glove deflected what was an apparent wide shot into the net.

The goal came with eight seconds left on an Avalanche power play.

From there, the Kings treated the puck as if it were precious, denying Colorado use of it whenever possible.

That apparently meant no shooting for the first 15 minutes of the second period, a King drought that was broken by a harmless effort from the point by Garry Galley.

Tsyplakov made it 3-1 with a power-play score that came when he rebounded Rob Blake’s one-timed shot at 17:03 of the second.

Palffy, who had two assists to go with his goal, set it up with what has become a King specialty: a pass to Blake in open ice, with a goalie at his mercy.

Roy rejected Blake, but Tsyplakov had things to himself with his first goal of the season.

Barrie’s score came in a third period in which there was suddenly some offensive energy. Again, the key was Palffy, who is skating with Tsyplakov and Barrie on a line that a week ago was Palffy-Stumpel-Robitaille.

Palffy had the puck on the left and sent it forward to Tsyplakov, who crossed it to Barrie. Until Monday, Barrie had played for Long Beach, among his many travels. His hockey sojourn also included stops in Europe and with NHL teams in Philadelphia, Florida and Pittsburgh.

He was a Penguin employee when he last scored in the NHL, on March 24, 1995, against New Jersey.

His goal, the Kings’ fourth, made the breathing a bit easier for the announced 14,323, who watched the Kings run their record to 4-2-2 in their new downtown digs.

It made Klemm’s score somewhat less pulse-heightening and pushed the Kings to within a point of San Jose for the Pacific Division and Western Conference lead.

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MONTREAL 2, DUCKS 1

Anaheim plays one of its worst games of the season, losing to a Canadien team that had been winless in nine games. Page 3