Storr Stands Up and Hasek Goes Down

Jean-Pierre Dumont: Shot. Save.

Curtis Brown: Shot. Save.

Vladimir Tsyplakov: Shot. Save.

All came in machine-gun fashion within arm’s length of Jamie Storr, and each was the kind of shot the Kings have seen turn on red lights all season.

Not Thursday night.

Storr turned back 19 of 21 Buffalo Sabre shots and made a third-period goal by Bryan Smolinski stand up in a 3-2 King victory before an announced 15,496 at Staples Center.

“It was a defensive effort,” Storr said. “Any time you get three goals against the world’s best goalie, you’d better win. You don’t do it often.”

The three goals came against Buffalo’s Dominik Hasek, beaten by the Kings for the first time since Jan. 9, 1997.

The clincher came when Smolinski was rolling down the ice on a two-on-one opportunity with Ian Laperriere against Buffalo’s Alexi Zhitnik.

“I knew Lapy was there, and I was thinking pass all the way,” Smolinski said. “I was drawing back the stick to pass and I saw Zhitnik go down, and I just shot. It was a split-second change.”

The puck sailed in just under the crossbar and just over Hasek for a 3-1 lead.

“It was a great goal,” said Buffalo Coach Lindy Ruff, who was not all that happy with his troops.

But 16:29 remained.

The lead became more harrowing when Chris Gratton deflected a blue-line blast from Zhitnik past Storr only 2:39 later.

A couple of forces were at work from there out:

* The Kings were 15-0-1 when leading after two periods.

* But they were 4-9 in one-goal games.

Now they are 16-0-1 and 5-9. And Storr is 2-0 in this homestand.

Actually, add a third force, that of Buffalo’s Denis Hamel, who lowered his shoulder at center ice and knocked Ziggy Palffy out of the game at 7:51 of the second period. The hit was legitimate. Palffy was skating with his head down, and when he was escorted off the ice, it was still down. He skated a couple of more shifts but was determined between periods to have a concussion.

After Gratton’s goal, the King defense took over.

“I think they only had one scoring chance in the last 10 minutes, but that was a good one,” Coach Andy Murray said.

It was a blast from five feet by Stu Barnes in the game’s closing moments and it was handled by Storr, the people’s choice for a night.

It was a night in which he was more like a shopper in a mall the week before Christmas. When there weren’t two Sabres in the crease, there were three, and their numbers were matched by Kings in a pushing-and-shoving contest that Storr tried to peer through.

“That’s their style of play,” he said of the Sabres. “When there’s a 240-pound guy sitting on you, that’s no fun.”

Then he didn’t have all that much fun Thursday night, because he spent much of the evening waiting for a mass of humanity to unpile off of him at every whistle.

“It was like a goal-line stand,” Smolinski said.

But the Kings stood and answered a call printed on the wall of their practice facility earlier in the day. It was to “Knock the Front Door Down,” defined by Murray as, “Let’s don’t slide into the playoffs. We’ve got some games in hand [against the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks, a couple of teams ahead of the Kings in the standings]. We’ve got some home games. Let’s not open the front door, let’s knock it down.”

The Kings did just that for a period, denting Hasek for goals by Steve Reinprecht and Stu Grimson in taking a 2-0 lead, cut in half on a second-period goal by Buffalo’s Curtis Brown.

It was Grimson’s third goal of the season, matching a personal best.

“Stu Grimson gets a goal against Dominik Hasek?” Storr said, smiling. “You’ve got to win a game with that.”

Actually, the Kings usually do.

“I saw a stat where when Peter Forsberg scores, Colorado wins,” Murray said. “When Stu Grimson scores, we win.”

When Storr stands up under an onslaught.