Kings Play Game to Their Advantage

The Kings’ power play, on again, off again, is on again.

Goals by Ziggy Palffy and Jozef Stumpel on Saturday night are testimony.

The Kings’ penalty killers, who also have been on again, off again, were back on again.

And on.

And on.

They were on so much in the second period of a 2-2 tie with the Penguins that most of the Kings watched Kelly Buchberger, Bob Corkum and Mattias Norstrom do the heavy lifting, unable to get on the ice.

“They’re the guys you don’t hear much about, but they kept us in the game,” said the Kings’ Rob Blake, who also handled his share of penalty killing, when he wasn’t in the penalty box for roughing the Penguins’ Roman Simicek to keep him out of goalie Jamie Storr’s face.

Blake’s penalty, combined with Stu Grimson’s, gave Pittsburgh a five-on-three advantage for 1:17.

The Penguins were held to one shot during that time, a blue-line effort launched by Martin Straka and handled easily by Storr.

The penalties were two of the four levied against the Kings in the second period, which began with Straka’s goal, scored on a rebound of a shot by Darius Kasparaitis only 21 seconds after intermission to delight the announced 16,958 at sold-out Mellon Arena.

The goal tied the score, 1-1.

“We had to kill those penalties because of a lack of discipline,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “Obviously, during that phase, Jamie Storr was real strong.”

The Kings were outshot, 17-4, in the second period, a reversal of fortune because they outshot Pittsburgh, 13-5, in the first.

“That was a strange game,” Murray added. “We give up that goal [by Straka] in the first shift of the second period, then proceed to have to kill [four] minor penalties in a row.

“Stumpel and Palffy had a lot of jump in their legs, but because they’re not penalty killers, I couldn’t put them out there as much as I wanted.”

Palffy was out there long enough to earn a goal and an assist, and Stumpel had the other goal for the Kings. Both goals came on power plays.

The extra jump might have been the product of both being benched in the third period of Thursday night’s 6-1 debacle against New Jersey.

“I don’t want to give [Murray] credit, because he’ll do it all the time,” Palffy said, laughing.

A goal by Alexei Kovalev from the right wing at 4:41 of the final period tied the score, 2-2.

It came 42 seconds after Stumpel had given the Kings a 2-1 lead by blasting a shot past Penguin goalie Garth Snow after taking a pass from Luc Robitaille. Palffy also assisted on the play.

Palffy gave the Kings a 1-0 lead in the opening period when he redirected a shot by Mathieu Schneider past Snow at 9:35.

The Kings largely succeeded in their mission to deal with Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr, who went shotless in the first period, had five in the second and finished with six. He also finished with bruises, courtesy of Grimson and Blake. Grimson hammered Jagr on the boards, earning a penalty, and Blake pushed him off the puck twice in a showdown of strength-on-strength.

“We shut down Jagr, but every time he had the puck you kind of had your heart in your mouth,” Murray said.

After the game, Jagr had some words with General Manager Craig Patrick. Jagr seemed to be cutting shifts short late in the game.

Said Penguin assistant Randy Hillier, speaking for Coach Ivan Hlinka, who wasn’t feeling well afterward: “I don’t know. You look at the minutes played tonight, he played his usual, about 20, 20-plus.”

Actually, Jagr played 25 minutes 14 seconds, mostly with a King in his face.

Storr faced 31 shots. The Kings sent 28 at Snow, including much better scoring chances.

But Snow was equal to them, perhaps because he had the second period off to watch his teammates on the power play.

“We got luck in that,” Blake said. “You can’t take those penalties, can’t put them on the power play like that when they have the five [players] that they have.”

In this case, the luck might have come from having Buchberger, Corkum and Norstrom on the ice, an advantage when the Kings were at a man disadvantage.