Kings Stay on Road to Recovery

The Kings showed themselves Saturday that it can be done.

After scoring two third-period goals and defeating the San Jose Sharks, 3-1, in front of a sellout crowd of 18,118 at Staples Center, they’ve won consecutive games for the first time since May, when they shut out the Colorado Avalanche in Games 5 and 6 of the Western Conference semifinals.

Including a victory over the Edmonton Oilers and ties against the Minnesota Wild and Calgary Flames, they’re unbeaten in four games and, after six weeks of bad luck and blown opportunities, seem to have everything going their way.

At one end of the ice Saturday, for example, the Sharks’ Alexander Korolyuk made a great move but clanged a penalty shot off the right post.

At the other, the Kings managed only one shot on goal in four power-play opportunities ... and Steve Heinze put it into the net for the winner.

“Instead of pucks bouncing against us, they’re bouncing with us,” Heinze said. “It’s good karma. The stars are aligned. Whatever you want to say. It’s just happening. We’re enjoying it and we’re going to try to keep it going.”

Jason Allison, with a first-period goal and an assist on Heinze’s winner with 16:03 to play, continued to show why the Kings traded for him last month, sending top forwards Jozef Stumpel and Glen Murray to the Boston Bruins. With points in nine of his last 10 games, Allison has 13 in 14 games with the Kings.

Jamie Storr, starting for the second consecutive game in place of the struggling Felix Potvin, provided steady goaltending and has earned the decision in each of the last four games, once in relief of Potvin.

And the Kings’ fourth line of Mikko Eloranta, Craig Johnson and Brad Chartrand provided another goal and two assists, giving the trio three goals and six assists in the last two games. Eloranta, who joined the team in the Allison trade, scored his first goal as a King with 11:56 to play, making the score 3-1.

“It’s so out there; how do you put your finger on it?” Heinze said of the Kings’ turnaround in the last week. “Why were we losing? You couldn’t really name one thing. Why are we winning? Well, you can’t really name one thing.”

Better luck hasn’t hurt.

The score was tied, 1-1, when Korolyuk was awarded a penalty shot with 18:21 to play after he had his feet taken out from under him by King defenseman Mattias Norstrom as he streaked down the right side on a breakaway.

On the penalty shot, however, the winger watched his backhanded effort fall harmlessly to the ice after his fake had fooled the goaltender.

“Realistically, I was lucky on that shot,” said Storr, who stopped 22 others. “But I’ll take it because I’ve seen a lot of lucky shots go off me into the net.”

Less than a minute later, Korolyuk banged another shot off the post.

Then, with Scott Hannan of the Sharks in the penalty box for hooking, Heinze scored his team-leading ninth goal, giving the Kings a 2-1 lead. Heinze, after taking a pass from Allison, waited until a split-second before he was leveled by defenseman Marcus Ragnarsson before flipping a shot from the left faceoff circle that squirted between the pads of goaltender Evgeni Nabokov.

“You kind of feel him more than see him,” Heinze said of the charging defenseman. “You know a guy’s coming, so I kind of gave him a little bit of a look to see if anybody was going to the net and just threw it at the net.

“You’ve been there so many times that you just kind of close your eyes and hope it goes in, hope you hit the right spot.”

Midway through the period, Johnson picked up a loose puck behind the Sharks’ net and fed a pass to Eloranta, who lifted a shot over Nabokov’s left shoulder.

Soon after, the sinking Sharks had lost their fourth game in a row and seventh in eight games.

And the Kings were surging.

“It’s amazing,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “A week ago I was on my team for not competing and not battling. I said a lot of things, but that’s the way I felt. And the reason I feel like that is because I see efforts like this today and I say, ‘Why can’t we play like this all the time?’ And if we don’t, it should be unacceptable.

“You set a standard for yourself and for your team, and that was a pretty good standard we played with today.”