Weaver’s late goal lifts Kings

Defenseman Mike Weaver took advantage of a rare opportunity on Friday night.

Weaver, playing in just his 32nd game this season, scored his first power-play goal in the NHL with 3:29 left in the third period to break a tie and lift the Kings to a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Left open at the inside edge of the right circle, Weaver sent a shot past Chicago goalie Nikolai Khabibulin high on the glove side after taking a cross-ice pass from Alexander Frolov.

“I noticed they had a lot of their forwards down deep,” Weaver said. “So I went backdoor. Frolov saw me and made a nice pass across and gave me some time to wind up. I’m usually not on the power play. I got some power-play time today and it was nice to get a goal.”

The goal was Weaver’s third this season. He scored his first NHL goal on Feb. 6 at Tampa Bay.

“It’s funny, the first goal of my NHL career was a couple of weeks ago and all of a sudden now I have three, it’s great,” he said.

Kings Coach Marc Crawford said he plans to give Weaver, in his second season with the Kings, more ice time.

“Mike is probably the one player that we’ve had this year that we didn’t play enough early,” Crawford said. “When he got his opportunity in early January, he’s been good since then.”

Patrick O’Sullivan had a goal and an assist for the Kings, 4-1-1 in their past six games following a five-game losing streak.

Kings defenseman Rob Blake left the game after the first period because of a strained neck and is day-to-day.

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TONIGHT

at Minnesota, 5 PDT, FSN West

Site -- Xcel Energy Center.

Radio -- 1150.

Records -- Kings 26-35-14, Wild 44-24-7.

Record vs. Wild -- 0-1-2.

Update -- The Wild has won eight consecutive games to move within one point of the Vancouver Canucks for the Northwest Division lead. Ex-King Pavol Demitra has 13 goals and 32 points in his last 23 games.

-- Chris Foster