Palffy Halts Wild Turn of Events

It took a while.

Almost too long, actually, for the Kings to get a third-period goal by Ziggy Palffy and beat Minnesota, 3-2, Saturday night.

“When we really wanted to play with a sense of urgency, we were able to do it,” Coach Andy Murray said. “It’s something we talked about after the second period, having a sense of urgency.”

It was necessary.

The first game against the expansion Wild was won, almost lost, then finally won before an announced 16,270 at Staples Center, and it took a play involving the NHL’s hottest player to settle the matter.

And some work from Stephane Fiset, making his season debut in goal after missing the first 25 games because of a knee injury.

Palffy, who leads the league with 18 goals, got No. 18 by being in the right place at the right time, redirecting Luc Robitaille’s shot past goalie Manny Fernandez and into the net at 13:01 of the final period.

Fiset calmed down enough to finish off the Wild.

“I was really, really nervous before the game,” said Fiset, who stopped 24 of 26 shots. “It’s been a long time, 10 or 11 weeks since I’ve played a game, except for that [rehabilitation] game the other night at Lowell.”

A couple of early saves, particularly a sliding effort that denied Filip Kuba a power-play goal in the opening period and a glove save of a shot by Scott Pellerin shortly thereafter, helped.

“After those, I settled down,” Fiset said.

First-period goals by Bryan Smolinski and Robitaille also provided a calming effect.

“I thought we played pretty good at the start and they capitalized on the chances they had,” Wild Coach Jacques Lemaire said. “The type of team they are, as soon as you make one mistake, they make you pay for it.”

The Kings had sought to get Minnesota into a penalty-killing situation, but instead of beating up on the Kings the Wild concentrated on overcoming their lead.

That Minnesota did, tying the score at 11:28 of the middle period when expansion veteran Sergei Krivokrasov--once an original Nashville Predator--circled the net and pounded in the puck.

Up until hat point, the Kings had one shot in the period.

“To be honest with you, I was concerned,” Murray said. “They were winning every puck. And I don’t know that we deserved to be ahead, 2-0.”

Things seemed easy enough in the opening period when Smolinski took a cross-ice pass from Jozef Stumpel and banged away from near the blue line. Fernandez got a piece of the puck, but the Kings had a 1-0 lead.

Again.

They have done so 19 times in 26 games.

The lead became 2-0 when Craig Johnson carried the puck deep and to the right of Fernandez, then sent it back to Robitaille, who fired it home for his 13th goal.

“We’ve got to take something out of each loss,” said former King Sean O’Donnell, now a Wild defenseman. “They’ve got Robitaille, Stumpel, Palffy, you can’t give those guys anything.

“You give those guys a couple of chances and it’s going to go in the net. It’s not like they dominated us down low or anything.”

Or anywhere else, at least until the third period, when the Kings finally earned a bit of power-play time and outshot Minnesota, 10-8. And ended a four-game winless streak (0-2-2).

“That’s the important thing: We got the points,” Murray said. “We found a way to win.”

Just in time.