Kings Enjoy a Great Night

The Great One was there. Wayne Gretzky spent Thursday night surveying the downtown playground of his former employers, the Kings, from one of Staples Center’s cubbyholes for the nouveau riche.

The Pretty Darn Good One was there. Mario Lemieux was checking out his Pittsburgh hirelings.

The Next Great One was there and he was just that. Penguin winger Jaromir Jagr put on a clinic with a goal and an assist.

And he was upstaged by, uh, Sean O’Donnell.

The Kings’ defenseman, by his own admission no offensive threat, threaded a shot between the legs of Michal Rozsival and past the glove of Peter Skudra for the game-tying goal, then saved a puck near the blue line and started a passing sequence that became Luc Robitaille’s goal that gave the Kings a lead in an eventual 5-3 victory over the Penguins.

O’Donnell’s flurry came within 2:23 of each other in the third period and were his first goal and assist of the season.

He had one goal last season and has only 11 in six NHL seasons.

But this one rewarded the patience of the Kings, who were 3-30 last season when trailing going into the third period.

Robitaille’s goal came when O’Donnell stretched for a puck at the blue line and sent it to Jozef Stumpel, who fired it across the ice at Ziggy Palffy, whose shot was tipped in by Robitaille.

A 30-footer by Glen Murray 11 seconds later let everyone in a Kings’ sweater, including most of the announced 14,779 on hand, breathe a little easier.

It proved to be the game-winner because German Titov scored with 13 seconds to play, rebounding Jagr’s missed shot.

Bryan Smolinski had an empty-net goal with three seconds left.

In the first two periods, most of the entertainment had been provided by Jagr. He started the night with a goal that only a WWF fan could appreciate. He took a puck from Rozsival and took on the Kings’ Aki Berg, who met Jagr at about the blue line.

Berg slashed Jagr, then hooked him, but Jagr steamed on, shaking off Berg’s efforts like they were a buzzing fly and launched the puck past goalie Stephane Fiset.

It was all Berg could do to keep from going in the net with the shot.

Only 42 seconds had been played.

King Coach Andy Murray constantly preaches taking on an entire team without concentrating on one player, but the Kings needed everyone against Jagr on the Penguins’ second goal, scored on a power play when he sent a pass across the King goalmouth to John Slaney.

Rob Brown had caught an attempted clearing pass from Mattias Norstrom near the blue line and sent a pass off the boards to Jagr, always the appropriate recipient.

Fiset was occupied with the King nemesis and Slaney had things rather easy in making it 2-0 with 3:09 played in the second period.

To that point, the Kings had outshot Pittsburgh, 19-8; had outhit the Penguins by a healthy margin; owned territorial advantage . . . and trailed by two goals.

It was that kind of night.

Half of that deficit was made up by Donald Audette, who took a long rebound of his own missed shot and returned it netward, this time over a sprawling Skudra at 11:25 of the second.

Smolinski started the play by winning a puck on the end boards and sending it out to Garry Galley, who rifled it over to Audette.

He had struggled in the season’s first five games while playing left wing and was switched to right, but Audette showed he had picked up a couple of notions during his time on the left.

He scored from there, and has four goals in his last three games. The Kings trailed, 2-1, going into the third period.

It was a case of what took so long for the Kings, who had open shots all night long and were making heroes of starting goalie Jean-Sebastien Aubin, who was playing his second game in as many nights; and Skudra, who came in when Aubin made a save with 26 seconds to play in the opening period and in doing so twisted his body in an awkward way.

Before leaving, Aubin faced point-blank, no-defense efforts by Jason Blake and Murray. Skudra’s problems were with Stumpel and Murray before Audette finally dented his armor.

The win was the Kings’ third in the five games of their first homestand at Staples Center. They finished 3-1-1.