[0] KINGS WILD ABOUT HAVING SKID END KINGS 3, MINNESOTA 2.

Byline: Brian Dohn Staff Writer

Kings coach Andy Murray was worried about the trap of the Minnesota Wild. Not the one Wild coach Jacques Lemaire employed when he led New Jersey in the mid-'90s, but rather the one set by a first-year expansion team that was short on talent but long on work ethic.

``If we score a goal in the last minute to win 2-1, that's fine,'' Murray said before Saturday's game at Staples Center.

Murray's prophecy wasn't on target, but he was close. Ziggy Palffy's redirection of Luc Robitaille's shot midway through the third period broke a tie game and lifted the Kings to a 3-2 win in their first meeting against Minnesota. It broke the Kings' winless streak at four games.

Palffy's goal came after he freed up the puck in the corner and fed Jozef Stumpel behind the net. Stumpel centered the puck to Robitaille in the high slot, and he fired a shot that was heading wide. But Palffy, the league's leading scorer with 39 points, deflected the puck past goalie Emmanuel Fernandez's stick side to give the Kings the lead with 10:49 left. It was Palffy's team-leading 18th goal.

Kings goalie Stephane Fiset's return wasn't dazzling, but after two months of inactivity because a sprained left knee he did have his moments in stopping 24 shots.

Before the game, Murray said he wasn't happy about the way the Kings approached the defensive game lately, and for the most part, that changed against a much-slower Minnesota squad.

``I think our offensive talent should take care of itself with a solid defensive effort,'' Murray said before the game. ``We've been giving up too many odd-numbered rushes. It comes from not being a solid team player, by cheating on offense too much. It's playing a hoping game instead of a knowing game. It's going to be our theme (against Minnesota). You have to play a knowing game rather than a hoping game.''

By that, Murray meant players had to put themselves in position to defend rather than be in an offensive spot hoping the puck will find him.

Part of the thinking was the memory of the fiasco of losing to first-year Columbus 4-1, as the Kings did in October. But this also wasn't the confidence boost they were looking for after limping back from a road trip without a win in their last four games.

Even worse, the superior-talented Kings had a chance to bury the Wild early after taking a two-goal lead in the first period on goals by Bryan Smolinski and Robitaille.

The plucky Wild, winners of three of its first 12 road games and sporting a 7-14-4 mark coming in, worked hard and manufactured a pair of goals in the second period to draw even. Neither goal was a thing of beauty, but both did the jobs.

After a scramble in front in which a shot was fired wide by Lubomir Sekeras, the puck was fired from the corner to Fiset's right to Jim Dowd in front. With a pair of Kings players standing in front and Fiset turned around, Dowd fired the puck into the open net at the 5:56 mark of the second period to pull Minnesota within 2-1.

The Wild tied it 2-2 with 8:32 left in the period when Sergei Krivokrasov skated around the net and flipped the puck off defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky's right leg and had it trickle past Fiset.

The Kings took a 1-0 lead 6:35 into the contest when Smolinski one-timed a shot from the left circle that Fernandez misjudged and had go off his blocker and dribble in behind him.

Eight minutes later, Robitaille made it 2-0 when he one-timed a pass from Craig Johnson along the left wing and beat Fernandez. It was Robitaille's 13th goal of the season.

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Photo: The Kings' Mattias Norstrom gets the puck away from Minnesota's Maxim Sunshinky.

Jill Connelly/Associated Press