Kings Pick Great Time to Find Their Offense

King Coach Andy Murray and assistant Dave Tippett double-teamed Jozef Stumpel, Ziggy Palffy and Luc Robitaille at the first intermission Thursday night and laid down the challenge:

Score, and not just against the New York Islanders.

“They were the guys on the ice for that short-handed goal,” said Murray, the Kings’ coach, after his first line had responded with two of the three goals scored in a 1:20 span of a 6-3 victory over Detroit at Staples Center.

“Dave talked pretty forcefully to them, and then I talked with them.”

The idea was that they are supposed to score, even against the NHL’s best, and the Red Wings are certainly in that category. Don’t just pick on the bottom feeders, such as the Islanders.

So, with the Kings down, 2-1, in the second period, Stumpel stepped into the breach, intercepted a pass from Detroit’s Chris Chelios, took a step and popped the puck past Chris Osgood to make it 2-2.

And light a fire.

“It was an important goal,” Palffy said. “They had momentum, and we took it back.”

Only 40 seconds later, the tie became a 3-2 King lead when Bryan Smolinski took a pass from Glen Murray and pushed the puck past Osgood.

Only 40 more seconds later, it became 4-2 when Robitaille took a pass Palffy threaded through the legs of Rob Blake and Detroit’s Kirk Maltby and slammed the puck through Osgood’s legs for his 25th goal this season and 542nd of his career.

Only 18 players in NHL history have scored more.

The 80 seconds transferred a nightmare from one end of the ice to the other, from King goalie Stephane Fiset, who has to see Sergei Fedorov as some kind of horror film star; to Osgood, who has to be shivering at the view looking back at the goal between his legs.

“We were playing pretty good there, and then it’s obvious [every] team plays the same way on us,” Osgood said. “You just cycle the puck on us. . . . We’re just not playing as good as we are accustomed to in our own end.”

He could enjoy the view at the other end, where Fiset got a close look at Fedorov, whose breakaway gave Detroit a 1-0 lead in the first period.

It was the 10th short-handed goal given up by the Kings this season, and it earned a scolding for the culprits--Stumpel, Palffy and Robitaille.

Palffy’s first goal tied it, but Fedorov answered early in the second period on another breakaway.

Fedorov was skating alone when a pass by teammate Larry Murphy sailed up the ice from behind the Detroit goal line.

Fiset went out to meet the play in accepted goalie fashion and poked the puck with his stick . . . right into Fedorov, from which it caromed into the net.

It was disheartening, and most of the announced 18,118--the Kings’ ninth sellout at Staples Center--registered same.

“It was the right play to make,” Fiset said. “Nine times out of 10, that’s a great play.

“But you could see the guys still played hard, still had plenty of energy.”

At evening’s end, the Kings owned their second win in a row, the first time that’s happened since Nov. 14-16.

“We’re not thinking about two wins in a row,” said Fiset, who also has two wins in a row for the first time since Oct. 28-30.

“We’re just thinking about playing good.”

And about an All-Star break that finds them in playoff position, with momentum, and with a challenge answered.