One Again, Dafoe Makes Big Stop for the Kings

King goaltender Byron Dafoe has become the team’s winless-streak breaker.

For the fifth time this season, Dafoe ended a winless stretch of at least two games as the Kings held on to defeat the Hartford Whalers, 5-3, Thursday night, their first victory since the All-Star break.

Before an announced crowd of 11,036 at the Forum, Dafoe made 29 saves to improve to 11-9-2 and end the Kings’ five-game winless streak. The Kings got two goals by Vladimir Tsyplakov and one each by Ray Ferraro, Barry Potomski and Vitali Yachmenev and never trailed as they swept both games against the Whalers this season.

Dafoe, who has given up slightly less than three goals a game this season, gave the Kings a lift and received better support from his teammates against a Hartford team that hadn’t played since Saturday night.

“The guys really had a lot of jump and played with a lot of confidence,” Dafoe said of the Kings’ offense, which had 43 shots on goal. “My confidence grew once we scored our third goal.”

Dafoe and the Kings’ defense were at their best late in the third period when they held Hartford scoreless after the Whalers pulled goalie Sean Burke in the final 1:32 for a six-on-four advantage.

Ferraro put the Kings ahead, 1-0, early with one of his most impressive goals of the season. After making a centering pass from the right side, Ferraro stayed with the play, picked up a rebound and scored when he spun and fired from the slot at 2:02 for his team-leading 17th goal.

The Kings took a 2-0 lead at 5:31 on a goal from an unlikely source in physical forward Barry Potomski. With the help of linemates Brad Smyth and Dan Bylsma, who helped keep the action in the Hartford zone, Potomski scored his third goal with a rebound shot from the right side of the crease.

With a two-goal lead, the Kings kept up their recent trend of short lapses when they gave up goals by Geoff Sanderson and Kent Mandeville within a two-minute span that tied the score, 2-2.

But the Kings had corrective measures. Dimitri Khristich’s missed wraparound shot led to a rebound goal by Tsyplakov with 1:01 remaining in the first period.

With a 3-2 lead for most of the second period, the Kings finally got some breathing room when Perreault picked up the puck after a turnover by the Whalers’ Andrew Cassels in the neutral zone and passed to Yachmenev, who scored from the slot on a breakaway at 15:16.

Hartford closed to within 4-3 early in the third period when Paul Ranheim scored a short-handed goal after outskating Perreault on a breakaway at 3:42. But again, the Kings responded with a goal of their own when Tsyplakov knocked in a rebound of a Rob Blake slap shot for only the Kings’ 11th power-play goal of the season at home.