Simmonds, Kings Tame Wild 4-2

It had been nearly a month, since Jan. 26 to be precise, since the Kings have played at STAPLES Center. And while things were not so hot during that long January home stand, the team finally figured things out on the road going 6-1-3 getting 15 out of a possible 20 points to reestablish themselves into the playoff race. The Kings continued that trend in their first game home with a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Wild.

“It’s huge,” Wayne Simmonds said after leading the Kings with two goals in the game. “It establishes our game at home. I know last time we were at home we didn’t play too well. We thought about that and wanted to put the right mark on it right from the start.”

Although don’t call it a great victory in front of head coach Terry Murray’s face.

“We just have to be a lot better than what we were here tonight in order to win games as we get going forward,” Murray said.

Wearing the retro Forum blue (not purple according to former owner Jack Kent Cooke) and gold jerseys as they honored former left-winger, scout and head coach Bob Berry before the game, the Kings seemed energized from the opening drop of the puck. In the first period they controlled most of the action highlighted by Simmonds’ power-play goal in the middle of the slot off of Jack Johnson’s centering pass at 13:25.

But a bad goal tied things up early in the second period when Eric Nystrom from behind the net cut between Michal Handzus and Willie Mitchell and dribbled the puck through the wickets of Jonathan Bernier at 4:03.

Despite the brief hiccup, the Kings once again reasserted themselves with Simmonds’ second goal of the game at 10:18. Simmonds was fighting for the puck on the right boards before heading to the middle of the slot allowing Anze Kopitar to take over. Kopitar gained possession of the puck, made a laser pass to Simmonds who absolutely blasted the shot to the back of the net.

The Kings seemed to have things under control until the last five minutes of the second period when the Wild controlled the puck and essentially built shelter in the Kings zone.

“We were moving well,” Johnson said of the Kings early play. “Once they realized we were playing well they made some adjustments.”

In more realistic terms according to Murray: “They came back, pushed the level up higher and had some play in our end. We didn’t match the intensity.”

It culminated at the very end of the period when Drew Doughty was sent to the penalty box for an interference call (and fireworks supplied by Dustin Brown and the Wild’s Martin Havlat going at it on the right boards in the Wild zone.) After a face off in the left circle in the Kings zone, Brent Burns controlled the puck at the top of the circle and hit a one-timer to tie the game up with five seconds left in the period.

Yet again the Kings reasserted themselves when on a rush Ryan Smyth left the puck to Dustin Brown at the top of the left circle. Brown made a cross-ice pass to Drew Doughty whose shot from the right circle blasted past Backstrom at 4:39 in the third period.

As the Wild were making a push at the end of the game with a power-play and a pulled goalie, Kopitar sealed the game with a 180-foot empty-netter with 1:14 left in the game.

“I kind of liked the one that went into the empty net,” Murray admitted. “It relieved a little bit of the pressure that was on us.”

TONIGHT’S ACTION

LA Clippers at LA Lakers. 7:30 p.m. FSWest (Lakers TV), FS Prime Ticket (Clippers TV), AM 710 KSPN (Lakers Radio), AM 980 KFWB (Clippers Radio).

Minnesota Wild at Anaheim Ducks. 7:00 p.m. KDOC, AM 830 KLAA.