Kings Do Just Enough

The Kings’ game against Columbus was barely six minutes old Saturday night when Bryan Smolinski gave fans at Staples Center something to cheer about.

With the Blue Jackets on a four-minute power play, thanks to a high-sticking penalty on Ian Laperriere, Smolinski beat Columbus goaltender Ron Tugnutt for the Kings’ first short-handed goal of the season.

But instead of utilizing Smolinski’s early goal as a spark, the Kings decided to do it the hard way before defeating Columbus, 3-2, in front of 16,224.

The Kings needed another goal from Smolinski, an insurance score from Adam Deadmarsh and 18 saves from goalie Felix Potvin to extend their unbeaten streak to four games (3-0-1) and improve to 4-2-2 in December.

“We’re finding ways to win games and that’s a change from earlier when no matter how well we played, we found ways to lose,” said King center Jason Allison, who had an assist on Smolinski’s second goal.

For the second game in a row, the Kings got off to a fast start against a team that had played the night before at Anaheim. The Blue Jackets defeated the Mighty Ducks, 3-2, on Friday.

Less than a minute into their penalty kill, the Kings took a 1-0 lead when Smolinski gathered a loose puck from the left side of the end line and scored 5:53 into the opening period.

With a one-goal lead, the Kings seemed primed to do to the Blue Jackets what they did to Vancouver on Thursday, when they jumped out to a 3-0 lead en route to a 6-3 victory.

But winning blowout games has not been the Kings’ style this season because, as Coach Andy Murray said before the game, “We haven’t been in that position very often.”

With a chance to pick up a two-game sweep of the Ducks and Kings on back-to-back nights, the Blue Jackets made sure the Kings had to work, bouncing back to tie the score at 1-1.

Moments after the Kings killed off Laperriere’s early penalty, Columbus left wing Ray Whitney scored his eighth goal of the season 9:29 into the first period when he beat Potvin from the right circle.

“They have a pretty good top line, which is playing pretty unbelievable,” King winger Craig Johnson said about the Blue Jackets’ Espen Knutsen, Tyler Wright and Whitney. “They are guys who work hard and play consistently.”

The hard work from the Blue Jackets’ No. 1 line paid off when they took advantage of a line change by the Kings and scored on a three-on-none break against Potvin.

“It looked like we had a bad change but what happened was that Smolinski went to shoot the puck and his stick broke,” Murray said. “Otherwise, there’s no problem, the puck’s in deep [in the Columbus zone].”

The score was tied at the start of the second, then the Kings regained control when Smolinski scored his eighth goal of season midway through the period. With the Kings on a power play, defenseman Jaroslav Modry’s shot from the blue line deflected off Columbus forward Mike Sillinger and the puck went directly to Smolinski, who scored from outside the left post to put the Kings ahead, 2-1.

“It was exciting to get two [goals] on the board and to be a part of the outcome,” said Smolinski, who has four goals in his last five games. “We played a solid game. We kept them on the wall and denied them from having good chances.”

The Blue Jackets, who lost to the Kings, 7-1, in October, tried to answer before the second period ended but the King defense gave them few solid chances.

“We have been playing a lot better defensively,” King forward Eric Belanger said. “It’s something that we have to stick to because you win games by making it tougher to score goals. By now, we know that if we play good in our zone, we’ll be successful.”

The Kings were finally able to get some breathing room early in the third period when Deadmarsh scored his 10th goal of the season.

With Columbus defenseman Mattias Timander in the penalty box for high sticking, the Kings scored their second power-play goal of the game when winger Steve Heinze made a timely pass to a wide-open Deadmarsh, who scored from the slot to give the Kings a 3-1 lead 2:41 into the final period.

Columbus, however, refused to quit and cut the Kings’ lead to 3-2 when winger Jody Shelley scored his first NHL goal at 3:49.

But that would be as close as the Blue Jackets would get.