Never Too Late for a King First

The way the Kings have played the last 31/2 months, it seemed almost unfair Saturday to ask the San Jose Sharks to take them on with a depleted lineup.

The Kings already were 3-0 against the Sharks this season.

So, with leading scorer Owen Nolan and five other San Jose regulars not in uniform, it was little surprise that the Kings rolled to a 3-0 victory and moved into a first-place tie with the Sharks in the Pacific Division.

Or, as Shark Coach Darryl Sutter called it afterward, “the toughest division in hockey,” with four teams within five points of one another. The Kings have 11 regular-season games remaining, the Sharks 10.

Ziggy Palffy scored two power-play goals, rookie Jaroslav Bednar scored his third goal in four games and goaltender Felix Potvin stopped 17 shots for his fourth shutout, helping the Kings to their sixth consecutive victory.

It’s their longest winning streak since the 1991-92 season, when they won eight in a row, and provided the final push in catching the Sharks, who led the Kings by 14 points before the Kings started a 28-8-5-2 surge with a victory on Dec. 9.

The Kings also have won seven of eight and, after weeks of fielding questions about why they’ve been so much better on the road, they’re unbeaten in their last six games at Staples Center and have lost only two of their last 10 there.

Their latest victory prompted a rare postgame visit to the locker room by club owner Philip Anschutz, who shook hands all around.

But it wasn’t enough to break his silence.

The Denver billionaire, who rarely gives interviews, declined to comment on his team’s startling turnaround, which has brought the Kings to within three points of the second-place Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference.

Others, however, were more than willing to speak.

“The thing that impresses me most about L.A. is how strong their defense is,” said Sutter, whose team failed to convert in six power-play opportunities. “It’s not so much a team concept as all six defensemen being solid. They block shots, they get pucks through, they move pucks up.”

King Coach Andy Murray was impressed with his team’s killer instinct against an obviously ailing and undermanned opponent. The six players missing from the Shark lineup, five of whom suffered injuries during the last week, have combined for more than a third of the team’s 209 goals.

“We knew they were a wounded animal today,” Murray said, “and when you’ve got a wounded animal, you’d better kill it right away because otherwise it’s going to get you.

“There are a lot of games where teams go in, they see the other team’s lineup and they think, ‘This one’s going to be easier tonight,’ and all of a sudden the two points are gone and you can’t get them back anymore.”

The Kings, who start a four-game trip tonight at Phoenix, made sure that didn’t happen. When their league-leading penalty-killing unit wasn’t stifling the Sharks, their league-leading power play was burying them.

“So many penalties against the best power play in the league,” Shark right wing Teemu Selanne said of his team’s six infractions. “That’s suicide.”

With Adam Graves in the penalty box for slashing, Palffy gave the Kings the lead for good with 1:49 to play in the first period, picking up a rebound and lifting the puck over Shark goaltender Evgeni Nabokov for his 26th goal.

At 8:57 of the second period, with Gary Suter in the penalty box for slashing, Palffy again scored on a rebound, his 13th goal in 16 games.

“He’s an unbelievably skilled guy,” said King center Jason Allison, who assisted on both Palffy goals. “He makes plays other guys can’t make.”

Bednar, recalled from the minors two weeks ago, made a pretty nice play of his own later in the period, skating in alone on Nabokov and lifting a backhanded shot over the goaltender at 14:41.