Kings Continue Their Big Move

All you need to know is that if the playoffs were to begin today, the Kings would be in them.

With Calgary losing at home to the New York Islanders, the Kings moved past the Flames for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with a well-earned 2-0 victory over Nashville on Tuesday night in front of 15,702 at Staples Center.

Right wing Steve Heinze scored a third-period goal and Craig Johnson added an empty-net goal, but it was Felix Potvin who made sure the Kings didn’t blow their opportunity with a terrific game in goal, making 24 saves to register his second shutout of the season and second in 2002.

Potvin, who blanked the Islanders on Jan. 5, is 9-3-1 in his last 13 starts.

The Kings, who improved to 12-3-3 since Dec. 8, had trouble offensively against Nashville, which has given up the fifth-most goals in the conference and has lost five consecutive games on the road.

That shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise for King Coach Andy Murray, who said before the game that his team still has plenty of room for improvement despite their success over the last five weeks.

“I think that we’ve got individual players that could play better than they’re playing,” Murray said. “We could be more consistent on our forechecking, we could be more consistent in our defensive zone play. It’s not everybody, but it’s certain players that need to play better.

“We still think that we can get more out of our so-called top six forwards--that there’s more to be had than what we’ve had.”

On a night when Los Angeles’ offense had a difficult time against Nashville goaltender Tomas Vokoun, who got the call instead of No.1 goalie Mike Dunham, the Kings definitely needed Potvin on top of his game at home, where they are 9-8-3-1 this season.

“We’ve struggled at home, but the fans have been great,” right wing Kelly Buchberger said. “We have to start getting the job done here like we have on the road.”

Winning on the road is something the Kings have done very well of late. They are 9-3-4 over their last 16 games away from Staples Center, including a recent 4-1 trip that saw them complete the NHL’s first sweep over New Jersey and the New York Rangers and Islanders.

But in their first game since returning to Los Angeles, the Kings appeared sluggish right from the opening faceoff Tuesday.

With Nashville playing its second game in as many nights after losing to the Mighty Ducks in Anaheim on Monday, the Kings may have wanted to jump on the Predators early, but they had trouble finding the net. Several times the Kings appeared in great position to score but were either off the mark or a little late with their shot.

After being outshot, 8-7, in the first period, the Kings had to rely on Potvin to keep the game scoreless in the second. Nashville had 10 shots on goal compared to the Kings’ four in the period, but Potvin stepped up to make a couple of big-time saves on Vitali Yachmenev and Bill Houlder over the final five minutes.

The Kings finally were able to get the puck past Vokoun 4:16 into the third period when Heinze scored his 15th goal of the season off a great assist from Jason Allison.

The Kings were able to hold off the Predators the rest of the game, thanks to their penalty-killing unit, which entered the game ranked No.1 in the league.

The Kings killed four man-advantage situations for Nashville, giving them 39 consecutive penalty kills.

The Kings will play four of their next five games at home with their only road game against the Ducks, and will return from the NHL all-star break with four of five games at Staples Center before the league’s two-week Olympic break.

“We have to take advantage of our home schedule, and we have to play better at home,” Murray said before Tuesday’s game. “We have to realize we need to keep our feet on the ground, battle every night and try and get ourselves into the playoffs.”

Now it is up to the Kings to stay there.