Kings return home to defeat Wild, 4-2

By Chris Foster

Feb. 24, 2011 12 AM PT

The NHL playoffs are six weeks away. But who’s counting?

“It’s still pretty early to look at the standings every day, and we’ve been doing that for three or four weeks,” Kings center Jarret Stoll said. “Usually we don’t do that until mid-March.”

The Kings can spend Friday enjoying what they see.

Their 4-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday moved them forward in the playoff crawl. Drew Doughty’s third-period goal made the difference, putting the Kings into fifth place in the Western Conference, though that is shakier ground than what Los Angeles sits on.

“I’ve never seen these many teams so close, at least not this late [in the season],” Stoll said. “Usually there are three or four teams, but when there’s eight or nine, it definitely makes the stretch drive go by a lot slower.”

There were seven teams within two points of one another, three of which were not holding playoff spots, as of Thursday morning. The Kings started the day in sixth place, one of four teams with 70 points. Before the puck got dropped, Dallas and Chicago joined that group with victories.

“We have no control over that,” Kings Coach Terry Murray said. “We just have to make sure we take care of the details and emotionally we’re connected.”

The Kings’ emotions went on an elevator ride Thursday. They were up and down … or rather, up and tied. Twice they gave back one-goal leads.

Up 1-0, three Kings had the Wild’s Eric Nystrom surrounded, but he still managed to poke the puck between goaltender Jonathan Bernier’s legs. The Kings led, 2-1, but Doughty took an interference penalty with nine seconds left in the second period. Brent Burns scored with five seconds left to tie the score.

That teetering act finally stabilized in a burst. Coming up ice on a rush, Dustin Brown feigned a shot, then slipped the puck to Doughty, who buried his shot four minutes into the third period.

It wasn’t that easy. The Kings had to kill off Ryan Smyth’s tripping penalty in the last two minutes, with Anze Kopitar flipping the puck the length of the ice for an empty-net goal.

“It wasn’t pretty. Things are so tight right now that these are games you have to win,” said Kings captain Brown. “Right now every night is a four-point night. We just have to keep winning these.”

The Kings’ power play had produced only five goals in 49 chances in the last 19 games, though Murray felt that was deceptive.

“We might not get the results that we want all the time [on the power play], but the structure, the zone time has been pretty good,” Murray said. “I think we’re moving well off the puck.”

That was the case in the first period, with the Kings’ aggression paying off on the power play. They had six shots on goal, the last by Wayne Simmonds, who flicked in a wrist shot.

It was the first of two goals for Simmonds, who ended a 16-game goal drought. His second goal gave the Kings a 2-1 lead midway through the second.

“It’s just that I haven’t been getting the bounces lately,” Simmonds said. “I got some shots on net and got those bounces.”

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