Potvin Rights the Kings’ Ship

After being benched for two games, goaltender Felix Potvin didn’t exactly play a perfect game, but he played well enough to help the Kings end a four-game losing streak.

“I felt real good out there,” said Potvin, who made 26 saves in the Kings’ 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Monday in front of a capacity crowd of 18,568 at Xcel Energy Center.

“My confidence has always been all right.... I felt like I had a real good start to the year but ran into a little bit of trouble over the last two games. You just can’t let those games bother you. All you can do is work hard and go back out there.”

And that’s what Potvin did as he gave the injury-plagued Kings a much-needed lift to help them end their longest losing stretch of the season. Potvin stood up against a Minnesota team that began the game with the fifth-best record in the NHL.

“I thought his rebound control was very good tonight,” Coach Andy Murray said about Potvin, who had given up 11 goals in his previous three starts before Monday.

“There was a lot of traffic, and I thought he gave up very few second opportunities.”

But Potvin was not the only hero for the Kings, who played again without injured forwards Jason Allison (knee), Adam Deadmarsh (post-concussion), Bryan Smolinski (eye), Eric Belanger (back) and Erik Rasmussen, and without defenseman Aaron Miller (foot).

Rookie Joe Corvo, a regular in the lineup since being recalled from Manchester of the American Hockey League on Dec. 13, scored his first NHL goal, Steve Kelly scored his first NHL goal in almost two years and Brad Chartrand scored a short-handed goal for the Kings, who won on the road for the first time since Dec. 11.

“We’ve been playing hard over the four games but had nothing to show for it,” Corvo said. “We needed a win to snap our streak and give us a boost going into Dallas.”

The Kings take on the Western Conference leading Stars tonight.

Potvin, who had not played since being pulled in the third period of a 2-0 loss to Chicago on Dec. 30, was on top of his game early.

After Corvo gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with a rebound goal from the slot three minutes into the first period, Potvin faced a huge challenge from Minnesota’s top goal scorer, Marian Gaborik, who recorded a hat trick against the Kings on Nov. 4.

With the Kings on a power play, Gaborik found himself with the puck on a short-handed breakaway. But Potvin, who finished with five saves in the opening period, didn’t panic and calmly swatted away Gaborik’s low shot to his blocker side at 4:33.

Minnesota tied the score, at 1-1, in the second period on a goal from Sergei Zholtok at 3:46.

Zholtok scored from the right circle when he squeezed a shot around two King defenders and beat Potvin high to his stick side.

But instead of folding as they have in recent weeks after an opponent scores, the Kings responded with a hard-working goal from Kelly, who deflected in a pass from Ziggy Palffy to give the Kings a 2-1 lead at 5:15 of the period.

After Kelly’s goal, Minnesota seemed ready to tie the score again when defenseman Jaroslav Modry gave the Wild two power-play opportunities with consecutive penalties.

But that’s when Ian Laperriere and Chartrand teamed up for the play of the game.

Laperriere got things started with a nifty steal in the Kings’ zone and led a two-on-one break with Chartrand.

After receiving Laperriere’s pass in the neutral zone, Chartrand patiently waited before shooting and then sneaked the puck between the legs of goaltender Dwayne Roloson, a replacement for starter Manny Fernandez, who suffered a knee injury earlier in the period.

Thanks to seven man-advantage situations, the Wild made things interesting in the third.

Minnesota outshot the Kings, 13-2, in the final period and closed within a goal when Pascal Dupuis scored at 15:18.

But that would be as close as the Wild would get.