It Takes Kings Just a Second

The Kings are doing more than merely treading water while they wait for Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh to recover from injuries.

They’ve stayed afloat in the Western Conference playoff scramble by emphasizing defense and tenacity, and both characteristics proved valuable in their 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 18,118 at Staples Center.

First-line left wing Erik Rasmussen scored their first goal, but support players Mike Cammalleri, Derek Armstrong and Eric Belanger produced the other three goals during a second-period surge.

The Blackhawks’ 13 shots on Felix Potvin were the fewest given up by the Kings this season, part of a total and totally necessary effort.

“I think we played a solid game. We’re finally getting everything together,” defenseman Jaroslav Modry said. “We realize we’ve got to get the job done, no matter who’s in the lineup or who’s not. We’re not looking for excuses. We’ve got to find a way to win and play solid.”

They accomplished that Saturday.

“This is probably our best defensive and offensive game this year,” said Belanger, making a strong turnaround from a minus-three defensive performance against the Panthers on Wednesday.

“A lot of guys have stepped up,” added Belanger, who has scored goals in successive games after going 18 games without a goal. “We’ve had a tough schedule the last month, and we knew if we came back from [their eight-game, 17-day] trip about .500 we’d be in good shape the rest of the year, and that’s what happened.”

The Kings made things happen against the Blackhawks, who are 1-5 on a seven-game trip that ends today at Anaheim against the Mighty Ducks.

“We’ve been a little bit offensively challenged, but we found a way to score goals,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “A lot of it was not fancy plays. We were going to the net, getting our sticks on some deflections or redirections.”

After a scoreless first period, the tempo and action picked up in the second period. Scoring three times in a span of 4 minutes 44 seconds, the Kings built a 4-1 lead and drove Blackhawk Coach Brian Sutter to pull goalie Jocelyn Thibault and throw rookie Craig Andersson in for his NHL debut.

Thibault had little help preventing the Kings’ goals. Rasmussen capped off a fine passing play by eluding defenseman Steve Poapst and scoring his second goal of the season, at 4:50. Bryan Smolinski made it possible by sliding a pass to his left to Ziggy Palffy before two Chicago defenders converged on him. Palffy found Rasmussen with a pass to the slot, and the big left wing redirected the puck past a helpless Thibault.

However, the lead didn’t last long. King defenseman Chris McAlpine was sent off for roughing at 5:59, and the Blackhawks -- who had enjoyed merely three seconds of power play time in the first period -- capitalized on the advantage. Center Alex Zhamnov, skating up the left side, slid the puck toward Eric Daze, but Daze couldn’t get his stick on it. Kyle Calder pounced on it and beat Potvin at 6:21.

The Kings cashed in on the power play at 8:20. Thibault stopped the first shot, by Modry, but the rebound flew upward and into the slot. Cammalleri batted it past Thibault with a waist-high swipe, below the height of the crossbar and therefore legal.

The Kings killed a penalty against Mathieu Schneider and took a 3-1 lead at 12:37, after Armstrong redirected a shot by Schneider past the beleaguered Thibault. Belanger’s close-range backhander at 13:04 was the 27th and last shot Thibault faced.

Although he started all but three of Chicago’s previous 22 games and ranked among the NHL leaders in minutes, wins and shutouts, he was hard-pressed to stop the Kings once they got into the slot area for high-percentage shots.

“It was as good an effort as we’ve had all year,” Potvin said.