Kings Get a Minor Victory

So that was the problem.

The Kings have been playing the wrong guys.

The right guys have been in Chicago and Manitoba and Lowell.

The wrong guys had lost five games in a row and were 0-5-1 in their last six until goalie Steve Passmore got goals from Scott Thomas, Brad Chartrand, Nelson Emerson, Mathieu Schneider and Luc Robitaille in a 5-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues Thursday night before 19,903 at the Savvis Center.

That’s Passmore, late of the IHL Chicago Wolves; and Thomas, only hours removed from the IHL’s Manitoba Moose and Chartrand, who awakened Christmas morning in Lowell of the AHL.

All three are with the Kings to replace injure players, and all three helped end the Blues’ unbeaten streak at 12 games (11-0-1).

“We had said this morning that we needed individuals to step up the levels of their games,” Coach Andy Murray said. “We had no choice. We had no other players to put in.”

Sometimes no choice is the best choice.

Passmore, for instance, is with the team for the second time this season because of an injury to Stephane Fiset.

The first time was truncated, largely because Passmore was hammered, 7-1, by the Blues in the Savvis Center on Oct. 19.

“This feels really great,” he said. “I’m just glad the coach gave me this opportunity to redeem myself.”

That he did, stopping 33 of 35 shots, including a second-period breakaway by Mike Eastwood on a short-handed situation with the Kings ahead, 3-2. But there was no time to celebrate, because Craig Conroy came back with Pierre Turgeon on a two-on-one break only 14 seconds later, at 13:42. Again, Passmore was equal to the task.

And the Kings responded.

“ ‘Pass’ gave us a chance,” said Emerson, whose goal was his first in 16 games. “He’s a battler, with a lot of energy.”

The energy was contagious, particularly when Emerson scored only 57 seconds after the Blues had taken a 1-0 first-period lead.

“That was a real big goal,” said Robitaille, whose power-play score made it 4-2 and was his 19th goal of the season.

“We had played well in the first period and it would have been hard to go in behind, 1-0.”

As important, the shot was taken from an impossible angle and went in only because it deflected off the pads of Blues’ goalie Roman Turek.

It’s the kind of goal the Kings have given up lately.

“That goal tied it up and kind of put the game back in my hands,” said Passmore, who plainly relished the idea. “It sort of starts you back even.”

Jamal Mayers’ goal gave the Blues a 2-1 lead and was their high-water mark, coming at 4:29 of the second period.

From that point it was all Kings.

Schneider grabbed a pass from Kelly Buchberger out of the air, put the puck on the ice and sent it past Turek to tie things, 2-2.

Chartrand’s goal was the eventual game-winner, coming off a pass from Bob Corkum and scored from a difficult angle.

Robitaille’s goal was initially credited to Rob Blake, who launched the puck toward the net on a power play. Robitaille was in front of Turek and was cross-checked hard in the back by the Blues’ Chris Pronger, reaching out his stick and deflecting the puck while falling to the ice.

“They’d better give me that one,” Robitaille said, laughing and figuring he had deserved it after being assaulted and battered.

Thomas’ goal finished things off and was his first in the NHL since Dec. 26, 1993, when he was with the Buffalo Sabres. He was dispatched to the minor leagues shortly thereafter and has been there since.

“I just kind of got lucky,” he said of the shot, which was a back-handed deflection of a pass from Jozef Stumpel. “I did my job. We all did.”

And that’s why the Kings broke their drought in an unlikely manner in an unlikely place.

“You get what you deserve in this league,” Murray said. “But sometimes after you’ve played poorly and lost, you have to play well for a while to get rewarded. We thought we played well against San Jose [in a 2-1 loss on Tuesday night]. Tonight we were rewarded.”

*

DUCKS 2

PREDATORS 2

Petr Tenkrat of the Mighty Ducks scored in the third period and Nashville killed off a penalty in the final 1:11 of overtime. D5