It’s Zero Hour for the Kings

The streak continues. Two of them, actually.

The Kings will wrap their arms around one -- an unbeaten streak in Nashville that dates to April 1999 -- but the other is a little more problematic, a 12-game winless streak that has lasted almost a month.

Tuesday’s 0-0 tie against the Predators appeared to be a typographical error to offense-minded fans but played out better than it looked in the box score, with 62 total shots and a milestone for King goaltender Roman Cechmanek.

Cechmanek stopped 29 shots before a crowd of 10,007 at Gaylord Entertainment Center and became the fastest active goaltender to record 25 shutouts, needing only 185 starts.

The Kings, marching toward a franchise-record for man-games lost to injury, couldn’t muster enough offense to stop Nashville backup Chris Mason from earning his third career victory, but they logged enough scoring chances to show signs of life after losing Ziggy Palffy and Martin Straka last week to injuries.

Right wing Trent Klatt accidentally referred to Tuesday’s game as a victory afterward, and it wasn’t too difficult to excuse the mistake, seeing as how the Kings lost most of their scoring punch when Palffy and Straka went down.

On the other hand, Klatt’s misstep subliminally underscored the Kings’ need for a victory. They haven’t had one since Dec. 16 and remain embedded in their longest winless streak (0-3-8-1) since 1981-82.

“We move on to Minnesota [tonight] and hope our first one comes there,” King Coach Andy Murray said.

The penalty kill stood out Tuesday in what has been a challenging, sometimes futile, area for the Kings, who began the game with the league’s 28th-ranked penalty kill but denied Nashville on eight power plays.

Sean Avery, the league’s most penalized player, took three penalties in the second period and Luc Robitaille took two in the game, but all were killed off.

“Special teams are huge,” Klatt said.

“Our penalty killers played great. Roman did too. They couldn’t have helped us more in the win. I’m sorry, the tie.”

The Kings had their chances to avoid the 10th scoreless tie in franchise history, the first since last March against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Jozef Stumpel had the best shot in overtime, a clean wrister in the upper slot that flicked off Mason’s glove and into the right corner.

Stumpel was stopped, but the Kings’ unbeaten streak in the place the locals call “Smashville” wasn’t. The Kings are on an 8-0-3 run in Nashville, including a 4-1 pasting here a month ago in which Palffy had two goals.

Rookie Esa Pirnes, recalled from Manchester (N.H.) on Monday, played an active role Tuesday and was rewarded with more ice time than any King center, and Cechmanek played one of his most consistent games in his fifth shutout this season.

Afterward, the news of the milestone caught Cechmanek off guard.

“Really?” he said. “I just stay focused on the game. Tonight, we took a big step up and played better than we have the last couple games.”

Cechmanek had help from the penalty killers, the defensemen and the left post.

The game’s best scoring chance came with a little more than four minutes left in the third period, but Denis Arkhipov’s wrist shot from the lower slot clanged off the metal.

The Kings finished with their fourth tie in five games.

“We want to make sure we keep getting points,” Klatt said. “If we can back up these ties with a couple of wins it would certainly make it look better.”