Month Has Same Flavor

Unhappy New Year.

It had been exactly one month since the Kings last won a game, and they couldn’t have asked for a better opponent Friday than the punchless Columbus Blue Jackets.

But the team with the fewest points in the Western Conference beat the team that hasn’t won since Dec. 16 when Rick Nash scored 2:58 into overtime to give Columbus a 3-2 victory that prolonged the Kings’ longest winless streak in 22 seasons before a delighted crowd of 17,238 at Nationwide Arena.

Despite their 14-game winless slump (0-3-9-2), the Kings picked up another point for getting to overtime and remained in the playoff race in the West, continuing the month-long paradox of an injury-racked team that can’t seem to win, but can’t be counted out of the playoffs yet.

The Kings and Phoenix Coyotes each have 47 points, but the Coyotes hold the eighth, and final, playoff spot because they have fewer overall losses, including those in overtime.

“If you want to get to the playoffs, you have to compile points and we’ve been doing that,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “We’d [just] rather get two points instead of one all the time.”

Nash, the league’s top goal-scorer at age 19, made sure the Blue Jackets came away with two points.

The top overall pick in the 2002 draft, Nash broke in alone on Roman Cechmanek after a King turnover in overtime and beat him to the stick side. King center Eric Belanger was moving up ice with the puck but had it stripped near the red line by former King Darryl Sydor, who was credited with an assist on the play.

And with that, the Kings couldn’t stop another less ominous streak -- they are now winless in their last seven games against the Blue Jackets, who finished last in the West last season and won’t do much better this season.

“It’s frustrating right now,” said Cechmanek, who had 28 saves. “Right now, we need a win.”

The game was comparable to the teams’ 2-2 tie last Saturday at Staples Center. On both occasions, the Kings never led and had to twice claw back from one-goal deficits.

Nash, who has 27 goals, gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead 7:22 into the third period on a power-play goal that started when Nikolai Zherdev moved in from the left boards and back-handed a pass through the crease. The puck barely missed the stick of King defenseman Mattias Norstrom and settled on Nash’s for an easy tap-in.

Zherdev, like Nash, is also 19.

“They are the future of our franchise,” Coach Gerard Gallant said. “I thought we had a lot of scoring chances. I thought we should have had four or five goals.”

After Geoff Sanderson opened the scoring on a breakaway, the Kings got a rarity -- a goal from Jozef Stumpel -- to tie the score at 1-1. Stumpel, an oft-injured center acquired from the Boston Bruins during the off-season, has four goals in 31 games.

Alexander Frolov answered Nash’s first goal and tied the score at 2-2 at 8:31 of the third period, gaining position in front of the net and redirecting Jaroslav Modry’s slap shot from the left circle.

But that was as close as the Kings got. Another point in the standings, but another winless night.