REALITY BITES FOR KINGS SHARKS PUT L.A. BACK IN ITS PLACE SAN JOSE 3, KINGS 1.

Byline: RICH HAMMOND Staff Writer

After two-plus months of hoping, Kings fans finally saw some brilliant goaltending at Staples Center.

Only problem is, the effort came from the road team.

Evgeni Nabokov, one half of San Jose's outstanding goalie tandem, turned away quality scoring chances by the handful Tuesday night as the Sharks earned a 3-1 victory in front of an announced crowd of 15,204.

``He swallowed up everything,'' Kings defenseman Aaron Miller said of Nabokov.

On another night, the Kings might have slipped a few pucks into the net. They generated 37 shots on goal and played well enough to force the Sharks into a breath-catching timeout late in the second period.

San Jose isn't an average team, though. The Sharks entered the game having allowed an average of 2.1 goals per game, fewest in the NHL, and were coming off a shutout of Phoenix on Monday night.

Nabokov and Vesa Toskala alternate games for the Sharks, so it was Nabokov's turn to shut down the Kings. Joe Pavelski provided support with two goals and Steve Bernier added a power-play goal.

Lubomir Visnovsky's goal with 9:34 remaining ruined Nabokov's bid for a shutout.

``He played dynamite,'' Kings center Derek Armstrong said of Nabokov. ``We could have done a better job of getting traffic in front of him, because he saw a lot of shots, but he's a world-class goalie.''

The Kings, who had showed signs of life as they totaled eight points in their previous seven games, took another step backward as they try to climb up from the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

Dan Cloutier, the Kings' oft-maligned goalie, had a better-than-average game and stopped 28 shots.

But Cloutier didn't get much help. The Kings took eight minor penalties and often handed over the game to the Sharks' power play, which started the night as the second-most efficient unit in the NHL.

The backbreaker came four minutes into the third period, with the Kings trailing 2-0 but playing well. The Kings' Sean Avery took a hooking penalty to give the Sharks a 5-on-3 advantage for 47 seconds.

With five seconds left in the two-man advantage, Pavelski scored his second goal to clinch the game.

``You want to take away something they are good at,'' Kings coach Marc Crawford said, in reference to the Sharks' power-play attack. ``You don't like to see your penalties (be) the holding, tripping and interference variety. That's a team that thrives off being good on the power play.''

San Jose beat the Kings for the third time in four meetings this season, but the Kings put up a fight.

The Kings, seemingly boosted by an early power play, controlled the pace of the game in the opening minutes and held San Jose without a shot for the first six minutes, but couldn't capitalize.

Cloutier, plagued by poor starts of late, held up until a San Jose power play 13 minutes into the game.

With the Kings' Marty Murray in the penalty box for holding, San Jose's Matt Carle made an innocent-looking dump-in from the neutral zone. The puck, however, came off the backboards with some zip, and slid right in front of the net before Cloutier could get his stick on it.

Bernier alertly broke for the net, got a step on the Kings' Brian Willsie, picked up the loose puck in front of the net and beat Cloutier with a wrist shot for a 1-0 lead with 6:37 remaining in the period.

San Jose took a 2-0 lead 8:54 into the second period thanks to some amazing timing. Pavelski, in the penalty box for San Jose's too many men on the ice penalty, stepped on the ice and headed straight for the Kings' blue line, where he stood unmarked. Patrick Rissmiller fed Pavelski with a long-range pass and Pavelski skated in alone and beat Cloutier with a wrist shot for a two-goal lead.

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Photo:

The Kings' Anze Kopitar, right, gets to the net Tuesday against San Jose's Evgeni Nabokov.

Noah Graham/Getty Images