Kings know way to wins in San Jose

SAN JOSE -- Evidence suggesting that Slump No. 2 may finally be coming to an end for the Kings surfaced Saturday night at a surprising safe haven.

Two games at HP Pavilion have resulted in two Kings victories this season, both keyed by sparkling performances by their goalies. This time, it wasn’t J.S. Aubin, who made 45 saves on Nov. 2, but Jason LaBarbera, who made 26 saves in the Kings’ 2-1 win in front of a sellout crowd of 17,496.

The Kings were led by first-period goals by Dustin Brown (his ninth of the season) at 10:31 and Anze Kopitar (No. 9), on the power play at 19:26.

That’s the short version of the events leading to LaBarbera’s breakthrough. For LaBarbera, it was his first win in almost a month. His last victory had been on Oct. 27 against the Edmonton Oilers.

“Hah, thank God,” LaBarbera said. “You can’t get too excited about one win, though. It’s been a frustrating last couple of weeks, obviously, losing the way we have. But it feels good to beat a first-place team like this, but we’ve got to come out and do the same thing [tonight] against Anaheim.”

LaBarbera was particularly sharp throughout but was boosted by what Kings Coach Marc Crawford called their “best defensive effort of the year.”

LaBarbera had to come up big, aided by some luck, with the Sharks scrambling for the tying goal when a Jonathan Cheechoo blast went off the side of his head with a little more than a minute left.

The Kings, who had not won in their last five games, were visibly relieved.

“Oh, for sure,” Crawford said. “Any time you’re losing, you have sleepless nights.”

Offense came in unfamiliar ways.

With the Kings leading 1-0, Kopitar scored on the power play, from the right circle, finishing off a rapid-fire passing play, beating Sharks goalie Evgeni Nabokov. It ended an 0-for-20 Kings drought on the power play.

Defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky and Brown assisted on the goal.

The Kings were boosted by the return of enforcer Raitis Ivanans and forward Kyle Calder, both out most of the month because of injuries requiring surgery.

Ivanans suffered a broken left cheekbone on Nov. 2, and Calder suffered a broken left thumb on Oct. 31.

“Those two guys coming back in our lineup gave us a more physical presence,” Crawford said. “One of the strength of theirs is they get to loose pucks. It gives us more size as well.

“The guys were very committed to do what it took to get a team win. Nobody was worried about getting short-shifted.”

The return of Ivanans and Calder coincided with the placement of Scott Thornton on injured reserve (bruised sternum), retroactive to Wednesday and the absence of leading scorer Alexander Frolov, who stayed behind in Los Angeles to rest his injured groin.

The game also featured a Kings penalty shot. Ladislav Nagy, though, was unsuccessful, at 11:58 of the second. He didn’t attempt to fake against Nabokov, and shot it right into his pads.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com