Kings Light It Up Against Stars, 8-0

After failing to score against Philadelphia and lowly Calgary, and after barely denting expansion Minnesota, the Kings found somebody they could beat Tuesday night.

Go figure the Kings, a team that could drive a sports psychologist to therapy and the announced 15,146 at Staples Center to distraction.

All it took was playing against the defending Western Conference champions, the team that won the Stanley Cup only two years ago. All it took was playing against Ed Belfour, a two-time Vezina Trophy-winning, five-time All-Star goalie for Jozef Stumpel, Ziggy Palffy, Nelson Emerson, Rob Blake, Steve Reinprecht, Luc Robitaille and Ian Laperriere.

And all it took was for Jamie Storr to light the fuse in the Kings’ 8-0 victory, their fifth in their last six games against the Stars, who once held a 24-game points streak against them.

It broke a three-game losing streak for the Kings.

“I think Jamie’s save when it was 0-0 might have been the turning point of the game, if you have a turning point in an 8-0 game,” King Coach Andy Murray said.

Laperriere agreed.

“It was a huge save,” he said. “The third shift of the game or the second shift, whatever it was, and it built momentum for the team.

“You feed off it. You think, ‘Jamie’s in the game,’ and we want to find a way to win for him.”

Better than that.

In his third shutout of the season and 10th of his career, Storr scrambled across the net and stretched out on the ice to make a glove save on a shot by Dallas’ Grant Marshall with the game in only its second minute. The next time down the ice, Stumpel put a rebound past Belfour and the blitz was on.

“It was a fortunate play,” Storr said. “I was in the right position. I was falling back. It was a lucky play.”

Lucky for the Kings.

Unlucky for Belfour.

He wanted to play his way out of a slump that has stretched to a 5-8 record since he jumped the club in Boston early in January.

This probably didn’t help, particularly when he passed directly--and embarrassingly--to Robitaille in the final period for his second goal of the game.

Dinner was served for a team that has been starving.

It was a feeding frenzy for a team that had scored once in its last 180 minutes and 36 seconds when it skated onto Staples Center ice.

One that last had a power-play goal 10 days earlier.

One whose top-six forwards had become strangers to anything resembling a point.

The gorging began when Stumpel took a rebound of a shot by Jaroslav Modry and put it under Jere Lehtinen and over Belfour for a 1-0 lead.

Only 2:20 had been played.

Palffy’s goal came on a breakaway when he batted down a long pass from Lubomir Visnovsky at the blue line and skated in alone on Belfour, backhanding a puck between his legs on a four-on-four situation with Darryl Sydor in the penalty box, only glass separating him from former King teammate Rob Blake.

Emerson’s goal came on a pass from Steve Reinprecht. Emerson had a half-stride on Sydor, who hammered him to the ice just as he shot for a 3-0 first-period lead.

Reinprecht celebrated the reunion on a line with Emerson--the two started the season together--with a wraparound goal at 11:08 of the second period. That made it 5-0, minutes after another drought had been broken by Blake.

His goal ended a 0-for-15 power-play famine and was scored after Brendan Morrow and Sami Helenius went to the penalty box at the same time, giving the Kings a five-on-three advantage.

Robitaille’s first goal was the end product of a brilliant individual effort in which he recovered a pass that had been rejected by Dallas’ Richard Jackman, backhanding the puck past Belfour.

His second goal--which came after that of Laperriere--was much easier. It was scored when Belfour went out of the net to field the puck, then sent it back the other way, where Robitaille was lurking. The net was empty, so Robitaille filled it.

All that remained was for Storr to finish the shutout, something he did with little trouble because the Stars had nothing left in losing for the third time in a row.

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PENGUINS WIN FOURTH IN ROW

Mario Lemieux scored a goal, assisted on two others and led Pittsburgh to a 6-3 victory over Atlanta. D8

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HELP MIGHT BE ON THE WAY

Mighty Duck left wing Marty McInnis will likely play tonight against the Nashville Predators. D8