Murray Shines Light on Flaws

King Coach Andy Murray didn’t know whether to laugh or cry after Thursday night’s 5-4 victory over the Mighty Ducks.

The Kings, who controlled the first two periods in building a 3-1 lead, gave up three goals in less than five minutes to lose their edge, then rallied to extend their nearly two-year unbeaten streak against the Ducks to nine games.

“You come in after the game, should you yell at them?” he said. “Should you pat them on the back? I just said, ‘We won. Enjoy the fact that we battled back to get it, but let’s come back tomorrow prepared to talk about what happened.’ ”

“Tomorrow” was Friday, and Murray said that poor special-teams play by the Kings, who gave up three power-play goals, had nearly ruined them. But Brad Chartrand’s second goal of the game, scored on a redirection of a shot by Jaroslav Modry to tie the score with 8:12 to play, changed everything.

“All of a sudden, the belief system came back in again,” he said. “We were almost at a point where you could sense, this shouldn’t be happening.”

Bryan Smolinski’s winner, scored on a rebound with 2:29 to play, was the Kings’ 11th goal in two games, their 10th by somebody other than their big three of Jason Allison, Adam Deadmarsh and Ziggy Palffy.

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Deadmarsh and Derek Armstrong will practice with the Kings this morning before it’s decided whether they’ll travel with the Kings for games Sunday night at Chicago and Monday night at St. Louis. Deadmarsh has an undetermined ailment, possibly related to the concussion he suffered last month. Armstrong has a groin injury.