Kings Repeat Losing Pattern

Once again, the Kings pleaded the fifth about the first.

It has been a problem against the St. Louis Blues, not showing up for the first period, and it cost the Kings a third time season, the latest blueprint looking a lot like the other two losses to St. Louis.

The defensive-minded Blues scored twice in the opening period and had what they needed to beat the Kings, 2-1, before 17,837 fans who braved a steady snowfall to make it to Savvis Center on Saturday.

The numbers speak for themselves: The Kings have been outscored in the first period by the Blues, 5-1, and outshot, 29-14.

“If I knew what it was, I would have rectified it beforehand,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “I look at the Blues’ good players and they were very good at the start of the game. Our guys that are supposed to be maybe ability-wise a notch above were not as good as they needed to be at the start and I told them that after the first period.”

Things improved somewhat over the final two periods -- Ziggy Palffy scored 2:46 into the second -- but it wasn’t enough against the team that has given up the fewest goals in the Western Conference.

“We can’t have five or six guys play in the first, 10 in the second and 20 in the third,” right wing Trent Klatt said. “We need all 20 guys from the start.”

The Kings again finished a game with fewer players than they started, as defenseman Joe Corvo couldn’t play after the first period because of flu. And, this was a King defense already without Aaron Miller.

Lubomir Visnovsky logged 31:49 on the ice, more than four minutes longer than Blues’ perennial All-Star defenseman Chris Pronger.

“That’s a lot of minutes,” said Visnovsky, who also played on the Kings’ top penalty-killing and power-play units. “Only five defensive players, I have to play more.”

The Kings have to score more if they are to beat the Blues. They have two goals in nine periods against goaltender Chris Osgood, who is 3-0 with a .971 save percentage against the Kings.

At the other end, goaltender Cristobal Huet played fairly well in place of Roman Cechmanek, who remains day-to-day with a bruised hip.

Huet stopped 25 shots, although he did have help from the pipes -- Mike Danton and Pronger each hit posts in the third period.

The Blues had better aim in the first.

Pavol Demitra started the scoring at 5:14, taking a pass from Murray Baron in the slot and taking as much time as he wanted without pressure, seemingly an eternity, to fake a shot and wait for Huet to drop before firing into an open net.

Eric Nickulas made it 2-0 by deflecting Pronger’s slap shot at 17:44.

Palffy supplied the Kings’ only offense and scored in a third consecutive game, beating Osgood by poking in his own rebound.

It wasn’t enough to turn what had been a decent trip into a memorable one: The Kings had taken four of a possible six points before falling to the Blues in the finale.

“We could have made it a very good trip for our team by getting points in St. Louis,” Murray said. “[Going] .500 on a road trip, average would be a pretty good word.”

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Center Jason Allison, sidelined since January because of whiplash, could resume practicing with the team this week, a progressive step in his on-again, off-again rehabilitation.

Allison practiced once with the team before its four-game trip and told team officials he might do it again this week. He had been skating with a small group of other injured players.

“That would be a natural next step in the progression of getting him back,” King General Manager Dave Taylor said. “As much as you skate on your own, it’s beneficial to be in the group. One of the places where players have problems is when there are a lot of other players on the ice and a lot of motion. It’ll be interesting to see how Jason reacts to it.”

There still is no timetable for Allison’s return and he has yet to practice with contact.