Despite Record, Kings Feeling Anything but Low These Days

Maybe the Kings had to reach rock bottom before they started to follow the team’s master plan.

Dimitri Khristich’s goal with 32.5 seconds to play gave the Kings a 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues Saturday night before a Forum crowd of 13,945 for their third consecutive victory since they dropped into last place in the Pacific Division.

For 60 minutes, the Kings played like the team that management had advertised before the season: A young hard working team that played defensive but opportunistic hockey.

With goaltender Byron Dafoe making 27 saves, the Kings made the most of their chances against his counterpart, St. Louis’ Grant Fuhr, to tie their longest winning streak of the season.

The winning goal by Khristich, who has three in his last two games, was set up by the effort of linemates Kai Nurminen and Vladimir Tsyplakov.

Nurminen out-fought two St. Louis players along the side boards for the puck, which was picked up by Tsyplakov, who made a drop pass to Khristich in the neutral zone. Khristich then skated to the middle of the ice and once he crossed the blue line whacked a shot that beat Fuhr to his glove side for his 12th goal.

“I just wanted to shoot because I knew that it was the last minute of the game,” Khristich said. “I didn’t pick a spot, I just shot it.”

With the victory, the Kings avenged a 7-4 loss to the Blues last month.

They did a better job checking the Blues in the neutral zone. Led by defensemen Jan Vopat, Aki Berg, Mattias Norstrom, Jaroslav Modry, Doug Zmolek and Philippe Boucher, the Kings played like the type of team Coach Larry Robinson has wanted all season.

“When you let guys like [Pierre] Turgeon and [Brett] Hull skate around, they will make mince meat out of you,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “Guys are going to make a good play when he know that he’s not going to get hit.”

For most of the first period, goalies Dafoe and Fuhr dominated as both teams had solid scoring chances stopped. The Kings caught a break when St. Louis forward Jim Campbell speared Ian Laperriere in the back and was given a four-minute double minor penalty at 17:29.

With an extended power play, the Kings struggled to get any shots off for the first two minutes. But with 12 seconds left in the period, Boucher whacked a slap shot that was deflected by Kevin Stevens from the right side of the slot past Fuhr to give the Kings a 1-0 lead.

The Kings maintained their lead for most of the second period as Dafoe shut down one scoring opportunity after another for the Blues.

But after failing to capitalize on a first-period power play, the Blues did not waste their second as Hull deflected in a pass from Courtnall from in front of the right side of the crease at 11:04 to tie the game, 1-1.