Kings Let Their Offense Do the Talking in 4-2 Victory

By running his mouth Thursday night, Rem Murray of the Edmonton Oilers may have helped the Kings turn their season around.

Something he said to an official before a faceoff early in the third period landed Murray in the penalty box for unsportsmanlike conduct and led to a power-play goal by Ziggy Palffy, sending the Kings on their way to a 4-2 victory.

Before Palffy’s goal, scored on a shot from the left faceoff circle that banged off the bottom of the crossbar and into the net with 16:24 to play, Oiler goaltender Tommy Salo was working on his third consecutive shutout against the Kings.

In front of a crowd of 16,434 in Skyreach Centre, the stingy Swede had stopped the Kings’ first 18 shots and the Oilers led, 1-0.

But Palffy’s goal gave new life to the Kings, who added three more in fewer than eight minutes to end a seven-game road winless streak and win for only the third time in the 13 games since they made the trade last month for Jason Allison.

Allison, who assisted on Palffy’s goal, scored his first power-play goal for the Kings with 12:47 to play. With Jochen Hecht of the Oilers in the penalty box for elbowing Eric Belanger, Allison slapped a shot into the net from the low slot after taking a nice pass from defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky.

Thirty-nine seconds later, Craig Johnson scored from almost the same spot after taking a pass from Mikko Eloranta, who joined the Kings also with Allison in the trade that send Jozef Stumpel and Glen Murray to the Boston Bruins.

Then, with 8:58 to play, Brad Chartrand scored his first goal since being called up from the minors on Monday, also off a pass from Eloranta.

Just like that, the Kings led, 4-1, and it was all made possible by Rem Murray, whom Belanger later said had been yapping at the officials throughout the game.

“We have had so many things go against us this year that maybe it’s time we got something like that,” said King Coach Andy Murray, no relation to the mouthy Oiler center. “I think he made a poor decision.”

It wouldn’t have mattered, of course, if Palffy hadn’t scored.

“Tommy was playing rather well,” King forward Bryan Smolinski said of Salo, who has four shutouts in 22 starts this season and had blanked the St. Louis Blues, 2-0, in his previous start Tuesday night. “He looked big in there.

“But once we got that monkey off our back, it was a little easier. They kind of dropped back into a shell and we just kept taking the play to them.”

Said Allison, whose two points gave him 11 in 13 games, 10 in his last nine: “Sometimes, when you get down like that, it’s tough to get the first one, but once we did we started rolling. It was a big goal and a great shot by Ziggy.”

The Kings’ third-period outburst made a winner of backup goaltender Jamie Storr, given a surprise start in place of the struggling Felix Potvin. Storr, who earned a tie Sunday night against the Minnesota Wild in his last start and another Tuesday night against the Calgary Flames in relief of Potvin, made 15 saves in his first victory since Feb. 16, when he defeated the Wild, 4-0, at St. Paul, Minn.

The loss ended a six-game unbeaten streak for the surprising Oilers, who are tied with the Flames for the lead in the Northwest Division.

“I thought for the better part of the game that we played better than the Oilers,” said Andy Murray, asked again about the penalty against Rem Murray, “so maybe it was justifiable that we got that opportunity....

“It was real important that we tied the game. If they’d taken a 2-0 lead, I don’t know if we would have been able to come back. But we were real deserving of the win. We played with a lot of emotion, and I thought we matched their speed.”

Even during their late run to the playoffs last season, the Kings were dominated by the Oilers. The Oilers won the last three meetings, the last two shutouts by Salo, 5-0, at Edmonton on Feb. 20 and 7-0 at Staples Center on March 21.

And the Oilers, thanks to a first-period goal by defenseman Steve Staios, carried a 1-0 lead into the final 17 minutes Thursday before the roof fell in.

“It was an enlightening thing to have happen,” Smolinski said, smiling as the Kings packed up for the flight home after a 1-1-2 trip to start a five-game homestand Saturday against the San Jose Sharks. “It’s a better trip home. It makes the road trip a little better. It puts us two points closer to a spot where we want to be and we can build on it. Hopefully, we don’t [throw] it away on Saturday.”