Stumpel, Palffy Find Net While Storr Protects His

The request was for more offense from Jozef Stumpel and Ziggy Palffy.

Well, OK.

Stumpel’s goal would have qualified as ugly in an NHL art gallery, but it looked beautiful to Coach Andy Murray because it broke a scoreless tie Thursday night at Staples Center.

Palffy’s goal was more picturesque in the Kings’ 2-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks before an announced 13,045, about two-thirds of whom were actually there.

The victory kept the Kings unbeaten (4-0-1) in their last five games.

Goalie Jamie Storr faced 25 shots in turning in his first shutout of the season and eighth of his career.

The third-period goals by Stumpel and Palffy were a far cry from what they contributed over the past couple of games, and that’s what drew Murray’s request earlier in the day for a heightened effort.

“They’re in a group we consider our best players,” Murray said. “If they have a good night, [Vancouver] has a bad night.”

Vancouver had been having a pretty good night for two periods.

But in the third, Palffy let go a shot that caromed to winger Tomas Vlasak, who sent it toward the goal, where Stumpel was playing the role of Shaquille O’Neal in the low post, with Vancouver’s Todd Bertuzzi on his back.

Stumpel’s deflection skittered through the legs of Canuck goalie Felix Potvin for the lead at 5:18.

“They had played very well and didn’t give up very much,” Stumpel said. “It was important to get a goal just to take the pressure off some.”

Palffy’s goal, his ninth of the season but first in eight games, came shortly after the Kings had killed a penalty. The final shot of that power play was taken from outside by Henrik Sedin.

It sailed wide of the net, and slid around the boards, where Kelly Buchberger gathered it in at the blue line.

He went right and Palffy left, and Buchberger sent the puck past a diving Greg Hawgood to Palffy, who had left the Canucks’ Bertuzzi. Potvin was powerless at 8:55.

From there, it was left for the Kings to protect Storr’s shutout. And for Storr to survive being run over with 2:06 to play by Ed Jovanovski after chasing down a puck behind the King net.

“When it was 0-0, I’ve only seen those on TV,” Storr said. “I thought, ‘This is going to be 0-0, and that’s unbelievable.’

“Then [when the Kings scored], it almost meant more pressure because we had worked so hard to get a lead and to keep them from having many opportunities, you wanted to make sure that they weren’t able to capitalize on those opportunities.”

That Storr did.

So did his counterpart.

That the scoring took so long was something of a surprise in a game between the two highest-scoring teams in the NHL.

The Kings came in with 60 goals, the Canucks with 55.

They exited the first 40 minutes with the same totals.

Chances abounded.

Rob Blake eyed a wide-open net in the waning seconds of the second period, Potvin having vacated the area to his left because Bryan Smolinski was firing a puck to the goalie’s right and Nelson Emerson was in the mix, waiting to do some damage.

Blake’s shot hit the post, then Potvin’s glove and chest, and the period ended the way it started, scoreless.

Potvin had a much more difficult evening than did Storr, who got more defensive help from his friends.

Potvin also got a bit of luck in addition to Blake’s post-ringer.

The Kings’ Mathieu Schneider hit the post, with Glen Murray in the slot, ready to clean things up, but a long rebound negated the effort.

The win was particularly pleasing to Andy Murray, who had watched Vancouver beat the Mighty Ducks, 7-2, a night earlier.

“We felt we were in trench warfare,” he said. “We could advance only a little bit at a time.

” . . . Really, I told the guys that this was the most gratifying win of any game since I’ve been here, because of the kind of game that it was.”

For him, it was the perfect ending for a day that began with him asking players to give the Kings some offense, and finished with them doing just that.