Canadiens’ Savage Is Hospitalized

The Staples Center crowd was stilled at 4:20 of the second period Saturday night with Montreal’s Brian Savage on the ice with his limbs shaking convulsively.

Savage, the Canadiens’ leading scorer with 12 goals, had whiffed on a shot after beating the Kings’ Glen Murray, but, head down, he had run headfirst into Ian Laperriere’s forearm and immediately fell to the ice.

With teammates gathered around and Laperriere skating back and forth nervously and concerned nearby, trainers administered aid for more than 10 minutes and got Savage first on a backboard, then on a stretcher that was wheeled from the ice.

He was sent to Centinela Hospital Medical Center, where tests came back negative after he complained about upper-back pain. Savage was kept overnight for observation.

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Sean O’Donnell, once a penalty magnet, was assessed his first minor of the season when he and the Canadiens’ Shayne Corson were hit with unsportsmanlike conduct calls for trading sticks at 18:15 of the second period.

O’Donnell has three fighting majors.

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Left wing Luc Robitaille has an MRI scheduled for Monday to evaluate his progress toward recovering from a broken bone in his left foot, suffered Oct. 28.

The examination is set for 7 a.m., the early hour “so that I might be able to skate later that day,” Robitaille said.

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The crowd of 18,118 was the Kings’ third sellout this season, but they are 0-2-1 in those games.