King Win Is Nothing Wild

This is the new NHL, where forwards roam free, obstruction is only a memory and the red lights behind the nets need to be replaced frequently.

Well, that is most of the NHL these days. The league’s sound bites apparently still haven’t resonated in Minnesota, where the Wild still does nothing wild to jeopardize a game.

The Kings found that out Sunday while scratching out a 2-1 victory on Pavol Demitra’s goal 3 minutes 31 seconds into overtime at Staples Center.

“That’s Jacques Lemaire,” King center Jeremy Roenick said of Minnesota’s coach. “He’s going to play that boring defensive style. He has to work with what he’s got. You have to give him credit. He took an expansion team and had successes. He plays that boring defensive style, but that’s what he has to do. It still stinks.”

Sunday was no exception to the rule.

The Wild was patient, waited for mistakes and forced the Kings into the type of grind-it-out game that was supposed to be part of the NHL’s pre-lockout past.

The Kings put in the effort to beat the Wild at its own game, overcoming a first-period mistake that gave the Wild a 1-0 lead.

“I told our guys it was going to take 60 minutes of work,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “I apologized afterward because it took a little longer than that.”

Demitra put an end to it, after Craig Conroy slipped him a pass just over the blue line. Demitra cut the across ice, deked defenseman Nick Schultz and then was able to use Conroy and defenseman Brent Burns as a shield before whistling a shot past goaltender Manny Fernandez.

“Connie made a great play,” Demitra said. “I faked the defenseman and just got a little bit of open space.”

A little bit of space is still all the Wild seems to allow.

Lemaire got his team to the Western Conference finals with a safe and sane style in 2002-03. With rule changes and an emphasis on calling obstruction penalties, the NHL hoped to encourage an offensive mind-set, if not out and out river hockey.

The Wild, though, has continued on its defensive path, and that made the Kings sweat.

“It’s a misconception of Jacques Lemaire from years ago,” Murray said. “They were never a trapping team. They work hard and know where to be without the puck.”

Whether it was a trap or dedication to the job, the Wild was content to forecheck and wait for mistakes. Conroy provided one, when he tried to chip the puck out of the Kings’ zone in the first period. Wes Walz intercepted the puck and got off a clear wrist shot that gave the Wild a 1-0 lead 6:52 into the game.

Eric Belanger got the Kings even, taking a pass from George Parros and knocking a shot off the crossbar and into the net 2:52 into the second period.

That left the game in the hand of goaltender Mathieu Garon, who had little margin for error. Garon made 24 saves, one a contest of wills with Walz in the third period. After a scrum in front of the net, Walz’s tried to push the puck -- and Garon’s glove -- across the goal line.

“I kept waiting for the ref to blow the whistle,” Garon said. “But everything goes so fast there, you really just have to hold on.”

Which, apparently, is still what you do against the Wild.

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King forward Valeri Bure, out for three weeks, said he has a herniated disk in his back. But Murray said that Bure misunderstood the diagnosis. “He has a little protruding disk, but it is not herniated,” Murray said.... The Kings activated defenseman Mattias Norstrom and sent defenseman Denis Grebeshkov to minor league Manchester.