Kings Are No Match for Blues

With three more regulars on the shelf, including center Jason Allison, the Kings limped into Savvis Center on Monday night and staggered out.

Their 5-0 loss in front of 19,993, preceded 24 hours by a 3-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, wrapped up a two-game trip that was about as fruitless and pointless as a July trip to the grocery store in search of eggnog.

Shut out for the first time since March 26, a 42-game stretch not including the playoffs, the Kings suffered their most lopsided loss of the season, the Blues breaking open a tight game by scoring four goals in the third period.

Even with Allison, Erik Rasmussen and Lubomir Visnovsky joining Adam Deadmarsh, Aaron Miller, Steve Heinze and Ken Belanger on an expanding injury list, the Kings put 30 shots on goal, but Brent Johnson turned them all away.

Their power play lacked juice, generating few quality chances until the final two minutes, by which time the Blues had lost interest.

The Blues, back home after a 0-2-1 trip that included a 6-2 loss to the Kings, scored the only goal they needed at 11:53 of the second period. With rookie Joe Corvo in the penalty box for cross-checking Doug Weight, Scott Mellanby redirected Weight’s shot from the left point.

Officially, the Blues scored two goals with the man advantage, but it might as well have been four. Twice in the third period, they scored only three seconds after power plays had ended, Cory Stillman netting his 12th goal at 1:53 and Pavol Demitra his 10th at 10:38.

On the first, Brad Chartrand was scrambling back onto the ice after serving an interference penalty. On the second, Brad Norton was barely back out after serving a high-sticking penalty.

Stillman scored again at 11:53, this one a true power-play goal with Chris McAlpine in the penalty box for high-sticking.

At even strength, Keith Tkachuk scored the last goal at 18:54.

All things considered, the Kings have had better days. This one started with the news that Allison, nine games into his comeback from a knee injury, would have to sit out after tweaking his right knee Sunday night.

Rasmussen and Visnovsky sat out because of back injuries.

“We just have to find a way,” King goaltender Jamie Storr said. “We have a lot of guys out of the lineup, but you know what? That’s no excuse. We still have to put up points every night. No one feels sorry for teams that missed the playoffs because they didn’t have their stars all year.”

Surprisingly, the Kings offered little in the way of self-flagellation afterward, perhaps because as bad as the loss was, it might have been an improvement over Sunday’s, in which the Kings fell behind, 2-0, after 3 1/2 minutes.

They started strongly, but after they failed to put a shot on goal during a four-minute power play early in the second period, the tide started to turn.

“I won’t say it was a step in the right direction,” captain Mattias Norstrom said, “but I think you saw a little more [competitiveness] in the team.

“It’s tough when you look at the end result, but [in Chicago] I don’t think we put ourselves in position to win the game. We were never really in it. Tonight, we were in the game. They were up, 1-0, but we were probably the better team at the time. We were outshooting them, creating more possession in their zone.”

Then came the third period.