Kings Roll With Punches

The Kings extended their winning streak to five games Thursday night with a 4-2 victory against the Ottawa Senators.

But not without a fight.

Several, in fact.

Kelly Buchberger of the Kings traded punches with Andre Roy.

Jason Allison took on Shane Hnidy.

Ian Laperriere fought Ricard Persson.

Adam Deadmarsh squared off with Wade Redden.

And that was only the undercard.

The main event, featuring the rare sight of goaltenders locked in a scrum at center ice, came with 5:22 to play in the second period and involved all 12 players on the ice at the time, joined later by Adam Mair of the Kings, who came off the bench.

In a game marred by fisticuffs and 236 penalty minutes in a wild second period, the Kings ran their unbeaten streak to seven games and reached .500 for the first time this season, getting the winning goal from Lubomir Visnovsky on a shot from the left point with 5:15 to play.

“Getting back to .500 is big for us, and it was a great way to do it,” said the Kings’ captain, defenseman Mattias Norstrom. “We’ve seen different faces from the L.A. Kings the last two weeks. We’re finding ways to win.

“Tonight, even with all the fights and scrums, somehow we were focused enough to do what we came here to do, and that was to win the hockey game.”

The second-period brawl was the centerpiece of an ugly game, seeming to leave even the crowd of 16,207 exhausted from watching it.

It started after Roy and King goaltender Felix Potvin got tangled up in the crease, Roy punching Potvin after the two traded pushes, but the Kings said it was precipitated by the Senators’ thuggish treatment of Allison, the Kings’ leading scorer, earlier in the game.

When it ended, helmets, sticks and jerseys littered the ice and six players had been ejected, among them Potvin and Senator goaltender Jani Hurme, whose exchange in front of the benches included a comical, WWF-like moment: Hurme’s teammates on the bench helping him pull off his glove.

Also drawing game-misconduct penalties were Mair and Jaroslav Modry of the Kings, along with Chris Herperger and Chris Neil of the Senators.

Mair, who jumped over the boards and skated full speed into a scrum involving Neil and teammate Mikko Eloranta, will draw an automatic suspension of at least 10 games for leaving the bench to join the fight.

But it could have been a lot worse for the Kings.

Allison, one leg draped over the boards, had to be restrained by several of his teammates from joining the fray.

“He wanted to get out there,” Bryan Smolinski said of Allison, who would have drawn at least a five-game suspension if he’d made it onto the ice. “Obviously, his emotions were trying to get the better of him.

“But we held him back and talked some sense into him.”

Mair, playing in only his third game with the Kings after his recall from the minors last week, apparently didn’t get the word.

His actions, however, earned praise from teammates.

“He cares about the guys in here and we care about him,” Smolinski said. “It takes big guts to do what he did. I’m sure New York [the NHL headquarters] is going to find out and Colin [Campbell, the league’s director of hockey operations] is going to do his thing [in handing out fines], but we’ll keep Mairse afloat.”

Said backup goaltender Jamie Storr, who stepped into a 1-1 game after Potvin’s ejection and stopped 14 of 15 shots to get the victory: “Stuff happens in games where circumstances get out of hand. But the one thing I can tell you about Adam Mair is, he’ll always stick up for his teammates.”

Mair, however, didn’t stick around for questions, bolting for the bus afterward and sending word through a team publicist that he would not comment.

Potvin said of his initial scuffle with Roy: “We both just got hot.”

Incredibly, the 236 penalty minutes in the period fell far short of the NHL record, the Kings and Philadelphia Flyers having combined for 372 penalty minutes in the first period of a 6-3 King loss on March 11, 1979, at Philadelphia.