Kings find success in shootout

So, can a season be saved by a save?

Of course, it sounds a bit melodramatic, but not so when you consider the plight of the struggling Kings. Finally, they ended their dubious zero-for-North America streak, winning for the first time since the season opener in London, beating the Minnesota Wild, 4-3, in a riveting shootout on Tuesday night at Staples Center before 14,239.

It was Minnesota’s first loss after opening the season with five victories and the Kings stopped their own slide, which had hit five games.

All three Kings shooters -- Dustin Brown, Michael Cammalleri and Anze Kopitar -- scored in the shootout, with Kopitar clinching it.

“I don’t know -- it just kind of went in there,” said Kopitar, who scored an unassisted short-handed goal early in the third period. “I kind of did that move in the morning skate. This team has a lot of character. We just didn’t show it the first six games. That was a big win for us and hopefully we’re going to keep it going.”

Goalie J.S. Aubin, making his first start of the season, put the Kings in position to win the shootout with a big save on Pavol Demitra, who was the second shooter for the Wild.

Aubin practically foreshadowed the save when he spoke with reporters after the morning skate in El Segundo, talking about how one moment could help change a season.

“It’s just one game, one hit, one shot, one goal,” Aubin said. “It could be anything. You just feed off of it. It could be tonight’s game, and roll off three or four more games like that, and we’re back in.”

Even before the shootout, Aubin had a highlight-type save.

It came late in the second period with the Wild on the power play and pressing hard for the go-ahead goal. Aubin robbed Wild center Eric Belanger of a near-certain goal, making a terrific glove save, having recovered from being out of position.

Other positive signs: Finally, there was some goal production from someone not named Cammalleri. The other Kings goals came from Scott Thornton, his first of the season, with 26.4 seconds remaining in the first period, and Kyle Calder, his second, at 7:42 of the second, on the power play.

Perhaps the message finally got through. If Kings Coach Marc Crawford was attempting to send one, it resonated in a big way in the morning when forward Ladislav Nagy and his $3.75-million salary were taken out of the lineup, a healthy scratch for the first time this season.

Of the free agents acquired over the summer in what the Kings called “Plan B,” perhaps Nagy has been the most invisible, recording three assists in six games. Kings President and General Manager Dean Lombardi on Monday was asked to address the play of the off-season acquisitions.

“It’s not only the new guys,” said Lombardi, who was on a conference call to discuss the decision to send rookie goaltender Jonathan Bernier back to his junior team.

“It’s some of our guys who are established. It’s almost across the board, other than two or three players. You can go right down the line. This is what I said before: One of the things with free agency -- when you have to be this active -- it means you have a lot of holes.”

Aubin spoke about Bernier’s departure after the morning skate. The two had become “pretty much best friends” in a short period of time, and Aubin moved over to take Bernier’s stall in the dressing room in El Segundo.

“It’s a funny story,” Aubin said. “I think about it. Every time I get along with someone they either get cut or get sent down or traded.”

lisa.dillman@latimes.com