Hard Part for Kings Is Showing Up

The Kings learned the travails of the road Wednesday.

En route to Manhattan after checking out of a New Jersey hotel, they got stuck behind a traffic accident inside the Lincoln Tunnel and were forced to sit idle on their bus for about 40 minutes on the New Jersey side of the tunnel.

Once in the city, however, their troubles subsided.

Running their winning streak to four games, they got goals from Mikko Eloranta, Steve Heinze, Ziggy Palffy and Lubomir Visnovsky and defeated the New York Rangers, 4-0, before a sellout crowd of 18,200 in Madison Square Garden.

Surprise starter Jamie Storr turned aside 34 shots for his first shutout of the season, helping the Kings end a 10-game winless streak in the Garden and become the first team in NHL history to sweep the Rangers, New York Islanders and New Jersey Devils in one trip.

Only a few hours earlier, the Kings were making frantic calls to the Ranger and league offices, trying to arrange a police escort out of their predicament.

When the traffic finally cleared, they made it on their own, arriving about an hour before the game.

Coach Andy Murray, playing a hunch, opted for Storr over Felix Potvin, who will face the Boston Bruins tonight at Boston, and the backup goaltender responded with a brilliant performance.

Stopping 17 shots in the third period, Storr earned his first shutout since Feb. 16, when he blanked the Minnesota Wild, 4-0, at St. Paul, Minn.

“I just felt that Jamie maybe had something to prove in this building after the way it had gone the last couple years,” Murray said. “He’s been playing real good hockey, and I just thought he’d be good tonight. Fortunately, I was right.”

In his last two starts at the Garden, an 8-3 loss two seasons ago and a 7-6 defeat last season, Storr was pulled in the first period. Last season’s loss ran the Kings’ winless streak in the Garden to 0-9-1 since a 6-2 victory on March 12, 1990.

With the streak finally ended, Storr said he felt vindicated.

“Regardless of the building,” he said, “that’s the type of effort I expect from myself, but there was a little bit of sweetness at the end of the game when you actually beat the team that’s been crushing you every year in their building.”

It was the Kings doing the crushing this time, avenging a particularly galling 5-4 loss to the Rangers on Dec. 29 at Staples Center.

“That was one of the most disappointing losses we’ve had this year because we gave up five goals, and that’s not the way we play hockey,” Murray said. “We didn’t respect their talent enough to play smart.

“I thought this time we were a lot more focused defensively and played with a little more structure in our game than what we had in L.A.”

After going 40 games into the season without a shutout, the Kings have two in three games. Potvin blanked the Islanders, 3-0, Saturday.

“It was a great game from the whole team,” said defenseman Mathieu Schneider, who assisted on Palffy’s goal, picking up his first point in four games since returning to the lineup after sitting out 23 games because of an abdominal injury. “It was a great game from Jamie Storr. That’s where it started.

“His last two times in here haven’t been kind to him, but he played an unbelievable game. I thought he was really focused. He made some great plays on some really tricky plays.”

The Kings are 10-2-3 since Dec. 8.