Kings Can’t Solve Riddle

It’s a good thing the Kings do not play Tampa Bay at home more often. If they did, the Lightning would surely give them an inferiority complex.

No matter how hard they try--no matter how many shots they launch--the Kings simply do not have an answer when they host Tampa Bay, one of the worst teams in the NHL since its inception in 1992.

It happened again Saturday night before a Staples Center crowd of 17,114, when Tampa Bay picked up its first victory of the season by defeating the Kings, 1-0, on a third period goal by Vaclav Prospal. Lightning goaltender Kevin Weekes had 31 saves..

Tampa Bay improved to 8-1-1 against the Kings in Los Angeles. The last time the Kings won at home against the Lightning was Nov. 11, 1997, when they still played at the Great Western Forum.

“We had a couple of guys get injured blocking shots and a lot of credit has to go out to them,” said Weekes, who stopped 31 shots. “It’s my job to try and stop anything that comes our way. ... I don’t look at it as if I did anything heroic or superhuman.”

The Kings, who dropped to 1-3-1, started strong against Tampa Bay, which won the only meeting between the teams last season. With starting goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin getting the night off, Weekes made his first start of the season and he had to be on top of his game early.

With the Kings moving the puck well, Weekes faced shots from all over the ice. If Weekes wasn’t stopping Adam Deadmarsh or Josef Stumpel from close range, he was keeping his head up to see blue-line blasts from Philippe Boucher or Aaron Miller.

“Prospal made a great shot on goal and we didn’t make those kind of shots tonight,” King winger Adam Deadmarsh said. “That’s why we ended up losing the game. [Weekes] played great.”

Despite out-shooting the Lightning, 12-5, the Kings were held scoreless in the first period and had to play the rest of the way without captain Mattias Norstrom, who suffered a rib injury in the opening period..

One reason for the Kings’ inability to score was their lack of traffic in front of Weekes, who was able to see nearly every shot clearly. In the second period, it was more of the same until the Kings’ line of Glen Murray, Bryan Smolinski and Steve Heinze started giving Weekes more to worry about by crashing the net.

Weekes, however, was up for the challenge, stopping one King shot after another. His best saves in the period came when he stopped Murray on a breakaway chance midway into the period and then did the same to Kelly Buchberger six minutes later.

King goalie Felix Potvin may not have been as busy as Weekes, but he also had to make a couple of key saves to keep Tampa Bay off the scoreboard. The Lightning, who lost a one-goal game at San Jose on Thursday, controlled the puck for much of the final half of the second period, but Potvin turned away the best chances, including Dave Andreychuk from outside the right post.

With the game scoreless, the Kings opened the third period with a 22-11 edge in shots on goal but momentum seemed to favor Tampa Bay. And, the Lightning didn’t need much time to make the Kings pay for the inability to score.

Tampa Bay jumped all over a turnover in the Kings’ zone when Fredrik Modin found Prospal alone near the right circle 38 seconds into the period. He was able to beat Potvin to his glove side. Just like that, the Kings found themselves down a goal after dominating play for nearly two periods.

The Kings had several good looks to tie the game in the final period but were unable to find the net. Not even when the Kings had a two-man advantage for 44 seconds could they get the puck past Weekes, who recorded the seventh shutout of his career.

“We didn’t score on our opportunities,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “It’s difficult to say why we didn’t. The puck was in the hands of our guys who are paid [to score].

“The unfortunate part about it was that I put a line on the ice to start the third period in [Eric] Belanger, [Ian] Lapperiere and [Kelly] Buchberger because they are an intensity line. Then we get a goal scored on us on that shift. We turned the puck over at the blue line and then we lost the puck in our zone, and we ended up being down 1-0.”

The Kings, who do not play again until they host Washington on Tuesday, will have to get more production during power plays. They failed to score in six man advantages on Saturday.