AUDETTE LIFTS KINGS' SPIRITS : KINGS 3 CHICAGO 2.

Byline: Roger Phillips

Early Thursday, the subject of the day for the Kings was urgency, the sense of which has been glaringly absent all too often this season.

Their words indicated they knew it was time to start playing with desperation, because the schedule is winding down and playoff hopes are beginning to wane.

Asked if a collective negative frame of mind had descended on the Kings' dressing room, defenseman Rob Blake was blunt.

``We should be in a negative state,'' defenseman Rob Blake said. ``Look at our record. It's awful. What do you want to be positive about? . . . You can be as negative or as positive as you want. You've got to play. When you're out there, be accounted for.''

The gloom lifted just a bit Thursday night.

Donald Audette accounted for two goals, including the game-winner with 9:39 to play, as the Kings recorded an important 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks before an announced crowd of 11,737 at the Forum. Defenseman Steve Duchesne, who has struggled all year, had a goal and two assists, and goalie Stephane Fiset made 35 saves.

With 32 games remaining, the Kings (18-28-4) moved within four points of San Jose in the race for the eighth and final playoff berth in the Western Conference. The Kings can move closer to the Sharks with a victory in Saturday night's game against San Jose at the Forum. The Sharks began an NHL-record 10-game trip Thursday night with a 3-1 loss at Phoenix.

Audette's goal was a gift from Chicago defenseman Chris Chelios. Trying to clear the puck down the ice, Chelios instead put the puck right on Duchesne's stick at the blue line. Duchesne passed the puck to Audette, wide open in front of Chicago's net. Audette took his time, drawing Jocelyn Thibault to the ice and backhanding the puck over the Blackhawks' goalie.

The game hadn't begun nearly as well for the Kings, who had lost six of their previous seven games before Thursday. Chicago (14-29-8), which suffered its fourth consecutive loss and is in last place in the Western Conference, opened the scoring on a power play 8:34 into the game, a goal that was the result of an atrocious decision with the puck by Russ Courtnall.

The Kings' winger, a penalty-killing specialist, had the puck in the neutral zone, with plenty of time to clear the puck down the ice.

Instead, he opted to do a Jaromir Jagr imitation, stick-handling and trying to pass the puck to himself between the legs of Chicago's Chad Kilger. The pass did go between Kilger's legs, but it also went back into the Kings' zone. Before Courtnall could reach the puck, the Blackhawks' Todd White beat him to it, and passed it across the ice to Kilger in the right faceoff circle. Kilger blasted a one-time shot past a defenseless Fiset.

On the positive side, the Kings didn't crumble, as they have so many times this season after making costly mistakes.

A lucky break enabled them to tie the score seven minutes after Courtnall's blunder, with Duchesne's shot from the right circle deflecting off the stick of Blackhawks defenseman Bryan Muir and past Thibault.A goal by Audette - a blast from the circle that went over Thibault's stick and just inside the left goal post - gave the Kings a 2-1 lead 5:12 into the second period.

But four minutes later, Fiset misplayed a centering pass by Kilger, the puck deflecting off his stick and into the net for a 2-2 tie that stood until Audette scored the game-winner.

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Photo

Photo: A shot by the Kings' Ray Ferraro is stopped by Blackhawks goalie Jocelyn Thibault during the first period at the Forum.

Victoria Arocho/Associated Press