Reinprecht Takes Charge as Kings Win

Steve Reinprecht had his own cheering section for his homecoming at Edmonton on Saturday night, about 120 tickets’ worth, a bonanza for the attendance-challenged Oilers.

His fans were a night early.

Reinprecht took a puck from Jaroslav Modry and beat clutching, beat grabbing, beat Adrian Aucoin, beat Brendan Morrison and finally beat goalie Felix Potvin for the game-winner in the Kings’ 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night at GM Place.

The score came short-handed, when dumping the puck and setting up defensively at the other end might have seemed the play.

“No, I had some room to gain the blue line,” he said. “If I couldn’t gain the blue line, I would have dumped it.”

And if he hadn’t been so offense-oriented.

“I thought I had a two-on-one, to be honest with you,” Reinprecht said.

He did, but he was the one and Aucoin and Morrison were the two.

“I had a bit of move on the one guy,” Reinprecht said of Aucoin. “I tried to make a move and I really didn’t know what was going to happen after that.”

What was going to happen is he was going to stumble, push, shove, keep his skates and the puck moving and overpower Morrison and Potvin--no small task.

“When I got it in front of the net, I tried to put it far side, but Potvin got his pad on my stick,” Reinprecht said. “I just pushed the pad a little bit and the puck got through.”

The goal joined that of Bryan Smolinski, who broke a scoreless tie at 1:20 of the third period in an individual effort of his own that took a lot out of the Canucks.

It also took a fair amount out of Vancouver’s Murray Baron after the puck glanced off his right skate and into the net.

Smolinski took a pass from Jozef Stumpel and had the puck in the slot, 30 feet in front of Potvin, who rejected his first shot.

Undeterred, Smolinski got the rebound and put it in the net.

“It was a broken play, and Stumpel made a good play to get it up the ice,” Smolinski said. “I was looking to get it to Ziggy [Palffy, who was held without a point for only the sixth time all season], but there was nothing happening there. I was in the slot and luckily I had some time so I just ripped it. It came back and then I hit something. I don’t know what.”

Baron’s skate broke the 0-0 tie that confounded the announced 17,063 who were watching the NHL’s highest-scoring team--the Canucks--against the third-highest scoring. What they saw were goalies making heroes of themselves and players running a shuttle to the penalty box.

They also saw both teams playing the kind of defense you would expect in ports the scoring-challenged call home.

“It was the kind of game you have to play against them,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “You can’t play run-and-gun with them. We have a reputation of being an offensive team, but when we get good goaltending and play strong defense, that’s when we’re best.

“People talk about Ziggy Palffy being a great scorer, but I’m more proud of the way he plays defense.”

The King defense, which was a tad loose in the opening period, tightened in the second, giving up only two shots. Both came after winger Todd Bertuzzi opened the second period with a solo flight in on goalie Stephane Fiset, who went out to meet the challenge.

Bertuzzi made it easy, briefly losing control of the puck and finally backhanding it off the crossbar.

Fiset was finally dented at 15:11 of the final period when Brent Sopel slammed a puck over the goalie’s left shoulder to cut the lead in half. Fiset never saw it coming because Trent Klatt screened the shot.

Fiset, who has won all three of his games since recovering from an exhibition-game knee injury, faced only 18 shots in the Kings’ best defensive effort of the season.

They won their third game in a row and have moved into a tie with San Jose for the Pacific Division lead with 36 points. The Sharks, though, have four games in hand.

“I think we’ve turned it up a notch these last couple of games and that’s great, because we know what level we have to play at to compete,” Smolinski said.

Reinprecht helped show them Sunday night.

*

DUCKS: 0

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