McKenna Needs Stitches After Taking Stick Near Eye

King left winger Steve McKenna scared everybody at 13:38 of the second period Monday night when he sprinted off the ice and up the tunnel alongside the King bench to the locker room, holding his face after being poked near his left eye by the stick of Ricard Persson.

McKenna received five stitches and his eye was swollen shut. He did not return, and the Kings double-shifted Donald Audette, Ziggy Palffy and Craig Johnson to cover McKenna’s spot on the fourth line.

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With 57.5 seconds to play and the Blues using six attackers, the Kings responded with their “stopper” line of Ian Laperriere, Marko Tuomainen and Johnson. They held the top St. Louis unit without a shot for 30 seconds.

After a stoppage of play with 20.3 seconds left, the Kings came out with Glen Murray, Bryan Smolinski and Jozef Stumpel, who won the puck, iced it twice and ran out the clock.