Kings Reach Down for Win

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- History did not favor the Kings on Friday.

They hadn’t won at Buffalo in 10 years. They had won only two of 13 road games since Dec. 11, among them a five-goal loss Thursday night at Philadelphia. And they were 2-9 in the second game when playing on consecutive nights.

But the law of averages was on their side and this was too: The Buffalo Sabres, their opponents in the HSBC Center, are the NHL’s worst team.

Their 4-1 victory in front of 11,866, ending an 0-6-1 streak at Buffalo that dated to March 15, 1993, was a testament to their knowledge of that fact and the opportunity a game against the struggling Sabres represented.

“We’ve got to make up some ground and give ourselves a chance to make the playoffs, and to do that you’ve got to get your points,” forward Bryan Smolinski said. “Obviously, it’s not getting any easier.

“Games like this we should win.”

Coach Andy Murray wasn’t taking any chances, scratching rookie defenseman Joe Corvo and moving Lubomir Visnovsky back to the blue line in a veteran lineup.

“It was a game we absolutely had to have,” Murray said, “and quite often in playoff games you play your most experienced lineup. That’s what we did tonight.”

With six weeks and 21 games left in their season, the Kings are five points behind the Edmonton Oilers in the race for eighth place and the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They trail the Chicago Blackhawks by one.

And it’s not only the playoffs they’re chasing. They’d also like to scare away the rumors that King management, facing the possible loss of five unrestricted free agents this summer, is ready to reconfigure the roster.

Two players who have been the subject of trade rumors, Smolinski and Ziggy Palffy, each scored two goals to help the Kings to their seventh victory in 10 games since they fell a season-high five games below .500 late last month.

“You can see it in the guys’ eyes, what is going to happen?” said Smolinski, who, unlike Palffy, is one of the five potential free agents. “And the guys you’re looking at, we don’t want anything to happen. We want this whole team to stay together. Are changes going to be made? Who knows?”

Palffy, who had a nine-game point-scoring streak ended in Thursday night’s 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, has scored nine goals and assisted on seven in his last 11 games. He has scored 13 goals in 16 games, matching his total from his first 39. He leads the Kings with 26 goals and 60 points.

“If we needed any more stamp of approval why we want to keep him in Los Angeles, and let everybody in the East know he’s not available, he’s doing a pretty good job of it,” Murray said. “He’s a King now and will be in the future.”

Palffy scored both his goals, the Kings’ first and last, unassisted. The first “deflated them big-time,” Smolinski said of the Sabres.

Smolinski finished them off.

His first goal gave the Kings a 2-0 lead in the game’s 16th minute and his second reestablished their two-goal advantage only 73 seconds after Eric Boulton had scored a second-period goal for the Sabres.

The goals were his first in seven games since Feb. 7, when he scored three in an 8-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes, and gave him 14 this season.