KINGS FINALLY FIND A SPOT TO BREAK THEIR FALL L.A. EXPLODES FOR THREE GOALS IN THIRD PERIOD TO DEFEAT SAN JOSE KINGS 4, SAN JOSE 2.

Byline: RICH HAMMOND  Staff Writer

The race is on for the Kings. The ultimate goal, at the one-quarter mark of the season, is still to make the playoffs, but first this group would like to avoid joining the worst teams in franchise history.

Entering Monday's game against San Jose, the Kings had five wins in 19 games. That projected to 22 wins for a full season, which would be the fewest for the franchise in any full NHL season since 1972. With the red-hot Sharks in town Monday night, the Kings' chances of earning their sixth victory seemed fairly slim.

But they turned in an impressive effort, scoring three third-period goals to defeat the Sharks 4-2 in front of an announced crowd of 16,667 Staples Center.

Dustin Brown scored the winning goal on a power play with 3:10 to play, and Alexander Frolov added an empty-net goal, his second of the game, with 23 seconds remaining.

Joe Thornton's goal, 47 seconds into the third period, broke a 1-1 tie and put the Kings on the brink of falling to 1-7-1 against Pacific Division opponents this season. But Lubomir Visnovsky tied the game at the 4:02 mark when he netted a power-play goal with a slap shot from just inside the blue line.

With struggling Philadelphia and Phoenix coming to town this week, the Kings generated some much-needed momentum and recorded their most impressive victory of the season.

The Kings' intriguing goaltending situation took another twist when Dan Cloutier got the start over Mathieu Garon, who got shelled by the Sharks for seven goals last week.

Things couldn't have started worse for Cloutier and the Kings. After a productive but failed power play, the Kings fell behind 1-0 on Milan Michalek's goal, which came on the Sharks' first shot of the game.

Michalek brought the puck up the right side, worked around Visnovsky, cut to the net and beat Cloutier with a shot to the upper corner, the latest in Cloutier's year-long trend of giving up short-side goals.

Cloutier settled down from there, and made a handful of solid saves for the rest of the period, but the Kings didn't generate many chances until they broke through in the final minute of the period to tie the score on Frolov's first goal.

Visnovsky took a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle, which got deflected by traffic in front of the net and onto the stick of Frolov, positioned to the left of the net. Frolov pulled the puck back briefly then fired a wrist shot past Vesa Toskala.

Frolov has now scored four goals in his past five games. He started the season with goals in two of his first three games, but then went through a stretch where he scored just once in 10 games. Frolov has eight points in his last seven games.

The Kings dominated a scoreless second period but weren't rewarded on the scoreboard. Twice in the period they stopped the Sharks' power play, which is the most efficient in the NHL, and they frequently swarmed the net and put pressure on Toskala but couldn't break through with a goal.

Notes: Marty Murray, claimed off waivers by the Kings on Saturday, made his debut for the Kings. Scott Thornton missed the game with a sore back.

... Luc Robitaille, the top goal-scorer in franchise history, has been hired by the Kings as assistant governor and alternative governor.

Robitaille will have various responsibilities in business operations and player/community relations.

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Photo:

(1 -- color) The Kings' Dustin Brown, left, puts a hit on San Jose's Mark Smith during Monday's game at Staples Center.

Noah Graham/Getty Images

(2) The Sharks' Mark Bell, left, battles for the puck against Anze Kopitar of the Kings in Monday's game at Staples Center.

Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images