For Kings, It’s a Blackhawk Sunday

CHICAGO — You might say the Kings want to be the Chicago Blackhawks when they grow up.

At this point, the Blackhawks are like the older brother--a little bigger, a little stronger and a little wiser. Sunday afternoon, it was a case of blue-collar hockey vs. aspiring blue-collar hockey and it resulted in a 2-1 victory by the Blackhawks before 16,794 at the United Center.

Through two periods, it was almost like old-time hockey. No goals, lots of forechecking and two decent fights. The first scrap was one between King defenseman Doug Zmolek and Blackhawk enforcer Jim Cummins, and the main event came in the second period between former reigning NHL heavyweight, left wing Bob Probert of the Blackhawks and a young enforcer, King right wing Matt Johnson.

Then came the final 20 minutes. The Kings made two mistakes that resulted in two Blackhawk goals and needed a five-on-three man advantage to prevent Chicago goaltender Ed Belfour from securing his 30th career shutout. Center Ray Ferraro scored off a deflection off Petr Klima’s shot from the left point for his second goal of the season, at 18:01 of the third.

But, more importantly, the game hinged on who didn’t score for the Kings. Their top two leading scorers--center Dimitri Khristich and right wing Yanic Perreault--went pointless and combined for two shots on goal. Khristich’s six-game scoring steak ended. In that stretch, he had three goals and 11 points.

“We still need to get the panic out of our play,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “We get a little tight in our end, and we still tend to run around. Old habits are sometimes hard to break.”

Goaltender Stephane Fiset, who faced 37 shots, could only keep the Kings in the game so long with another stellar performance. The Blackhawks’ first goal, at 2:27 of the third with the teams playing four on four. Chicago center Alexei Zhamnov flipped the puck to the middle from the left wing and it went bouncing between the King defensive pairing of Jaroslav Modry and Mattias Norstrom. Tony Amonte managed to get behind Norstrom and broke in alone, beating Fiset between the pads.

Amonte, who has four goals in the last four games, felt vindicated, especially after his apparent first-period goal was disallowed after video replay judge Mark Will ruled his skates were in the crease.

Zhamnov, making his Blackhawk debut after a lengthy holdout, looked rusty but impressed his teammates. He made his presence known by winning 14 faceoffs, an area dominated by Chicago on Sunday. With less than four minutes remaining, the Blackhawks had the edge, 36-18. It was the second home victory this season for the Blackhawks.

The second costly King mistake came on some confusion in their own zone between Modry and Steven Finn, who was playing in his first game since suffering a micro fracture in his lower right leg during training camp. On the play, Finn took the puck and shot it out of the left corner, thinking a King forward would be in the vicinity.

One wasn’t. The only player around was the Blackhawks’ Enrico Ciccone, who moved in above the left circle and beat Fiset with a hard slap shot on the glove side, at 7:10 of the third, making it 2-0. It was Ciccone’s first goal of the season and sixth of his career.

“I have to take it out or keep it, it was my fault,” said Finn, who said his legs felt heavy after the prolonged absence. “I didn’t even look. I gave it to Modry and he gave it back to me and I took it for granted my winger was there. But I guess there was a line change or something. I gave it to Ciccone. Bad play.”