Kings Don’t Rush This Victory

The Kings’ Luc Robitaille churned his 40-year-old legs slowly toward the net -- very slowly -- and slipped a quick wrist shot under the pads of St. Louis Blues’ goaltender Patrick Lalime to start the shootout.

Kings’ goaltender Mathieu Garon, besieged in net two nights earlier, burst from his crease, backed off, then smothered Lee Stempniak’s shot, ending the shootout.

After 60 minutes of enduring the gnat-like Blues on Saturday, that was all it took for the Kings to dig out two points in a 2-1 shootout victory at the Savvis Center, a victory that helped purge the memories of Thursday’s debacle in Detroit.

Robitaille made a long journey from center ice, Garon made 31 saves, plus three more in the shootout, and Mark Parrish made Thursday’s trade look pretty good with his first goal as a King. All of which made for a happy team.

“Getting two points from that game was tremendous,” Coach Andy Murray said.

Victories weren’t so hard to come by in St. Louis earlier this season. The Blues’ streak of 25 consecutive playoff appearances, the longest in pro sports, was written off long ago. The Blues, though, have matured -- they have seven players on their roster that played fewer than 10 NHL games before this season.

The Kings were out-played much of the night, getting to the shootout on Parrish’s ability to put pucks in the net -- this time with his skate -- and Garon’s athleticism. They collected the extra point when Robitaille scored the only goal in the shootout.

Robitaille took his time on the play, meandering in from center ice, then fired a shot that hit Lalime’s pad, then trickled in.

“That’s a Luc Robitaille goal,” Murray said. “Nine out of 10 guys take that shot and it gets stopped. With Luc, the puck finds a way to go in.”

Still, “Luc took so much time to get there, I was worried there might be a time limit,” Murray said.

All part of the plan, Robitaille said.

“I have seen this goalie a couple times, so I knew he comes out quick,” Robitaille said. “I knew I had to take my time and give myself lots of options.”

That left the game in Garon’s crease. He stopped shots by Petr Cajanek, Dennis Wideman and Stempniak.

Garon was pulled from Thursday’s 7-3 loss to Detroit, for his own protection after he saw a blizzard of shots. He showed no ill effects from the experience, allowing only a Cajanek goal that tied the score 4 minutes 29 seconds into the third period.

“I knew I hadn’t played bad in Detroit, we just had a bad night,” Garon said.

Garon kept the Kings afloat in regulation, and again in overtime. He tipped away Cajanek’s shot on a break-away, then somehow managed to get the shaft of his stick on a shot by Kevin Dallman that hit a player and changed directions on the way to the net.

The Kings were pretty happy with Parrish, who was acquired from the New York Islanders on Thursday. Michael Cammalleri fired and Lalime made the save and Parrish, who was crashing the net, had the puck go off his skate and into the net.

“It was a swing and a miss with the stick,” Parrish said. “But they brought me here to score goals with my stick, body, skates, whatever works.”