Third time is a wrap for Ersberg

Not all goalie auditions are created equal. There are the ones of the April-playoff variety, and then you have the slightly longer-range ones, tryouts for October readiness.

Call it one road for Ottawa and goalie Martin Gerber, making his fourth consecutive start, and the latter route traveled by the Kings, and in this case, rookie Erik Ersberg.

Ersberg, making his third consecutive start, had a career breakthrough, winning his first NHL game as the Kings defeated the Senators, 2-0, Thursday night before 17,582 at Staples Center.

It represented an early birthday present, and although he looks closer to 16, he will turn 26 on Saturday.

The game-winner came on a second-period, power-play goal from Alexander Frolov, who scored from between the circles, taking a centering pass from Anze Kopitar, to beat Gerber on the short side. It was his 21st goal of the season.

Ersberg faced 40 shots and seemed to get better as the game went on, though he had to sweat it out when the Senators thought they scored with 1:58 remaining.

Video-replay review upheld the call of no goal. Ersberg’s first NHL win, and the shutout, ended a recent string of futility for the Kings, who recorded their first victory in six games.

“I feel great,” he said on the ice in his TV interview. “ . . . I’ve got to be honest with you, I wasn’t sure if it was in or not. So it was a little scary.”

The suddenly reeling Senators were playing their third game in four nights and had lost four of their last five before Wednesday night and they were again missing leading scorer Daniel Alfredsson (back spasms).

The big question is whether the Senators can pull it together in time for the playoffs.

But suspense can take many forms -- even with the Kings, in the midst of an interesting stretch in goal. Neither of the Kings’ goalies in uniform Thursday, veteran Dan Cloutier or Ersberg, were anywhere near Los Angeles in October. In fact, Ersberg played in his native Sweden last season.

Said Kings assistant general manager Ron Hextall: “He felt a little more comfortable [tonight] and he developed of a swagger in his body language. He’s got a knack for playing big.”

Jason LaBarbera’s season-ending hernia surgery opened the door for Cloutier and Ersberg.

There are no certain things, come October, from the way Kings Coach Marc Crawford was talking, especially when asked to evaluate LaBarbera’s season.

“He definitely has shown he can play in the NHL,” Crawford said Wednesday. “Has he shown he has the ability to be a No. 1 goaltender? No, I don’t think we can make that evaluation just yet. He definitely is an NHL goaltender.

“Now how much more is there? Sure there’s more for him. He’s at the age where he should be coming into the top of his game. He played a lot this year. He came back from a pretty significant injury and I thought he didn’t play very well till he got comfortable again. In fairness to Jason, there’s probably been some soreness of the last third of the season for him.”

Center Derek Armstrong, who missed five games because of an injured knee, returned to action.

Kings forward Patrick O’Sullivan needed attention after a knee-to-knee collision with Anton Volchenkov with about four minutes remaining in the second period but he returned in the third and scored an empty-netter with 4.3 seconds left.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com