Late Penalty Almost Turns Into Nightmare for Murray

One thought raced through Coach Andy Murray’s mind in the closing seconds of the third period Sunday in Game 6 against the Colorado Avalanche.

With the teams scoreless, Murray heard a whistle and watched in horror as referees Kerry Fraser and Mark Faucette counted six King skaters on the ice.

“I’m thinking about Don Cherry,” Murray said. “I’m thinking about the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens.”

And perhaps the most famous too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty in NHL playoff history.

The Bruins led the Canadiens, 4-3, with 2:34 remaining in Game 7 of the conference finals at the Montreal Forum on May 10, 1979. Montreal scored on the ensuing power play, forcing overtime, then won in the extra period.

Cherry, then the Bruin coach and now a bombastic TV personality in Canada, always has accepted the blame for the penalty and the heartbreaking loss.

Murray could joke about the penalty Monday because the Avalanche didn’t score on an ensuing power play Sunday. The Kings went on to even the series at three games apiece with a 1-0 overtime victory.

Murray said he was lecturing Nelson Emerson when the winger suddenly bolted from the bench, giving the Kings too many men on the ice.

“I sort of barked, ‘Nelson, make sure you’ve got that wide lane covered,’ ” Murray said. “He went right off the bench when I said, ‘Nelson.’ ”

Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla suggested more than a berth in the conference finals will be at stake Wednesday.

“Blow a 3-1 lead in the series at Los Angeles, and Coach Bob Hartley might as well skip the lame explanations and go straight to his resignation speech,” Kiszla wrote in Tuesday’s editions. “The only dust settling would be on the tombstone of Hartley’s NHL career.”

Murray was offended at the notion the Kings were so inferior that Hartley deserved to be fired if his team can’t prevail.

“I’m having a tough time reading this disaster stuff out of Colorado, that Bob’s job is on the line, that they won four straight from Vancouver and should have beaten us,” Murray said. “Give us a little bit of credit. They’re playing a pretty good team right now.”

Murray said Monday he had considered scratching defenseman Jere Karalahti for Game 6, but went with him anyway, instead of rookie Andreas Lilja.

Despite Karalahti’s plus/minus rating of minus-seven in the playoffs, postseason, Murray was determined to stick with him.

“We felt our guys who have been here all year deserved to be in the game,” Murray he said. “Jere slipped a little bit, but we felt we wanted him in there. He earned the right to be in there. He deserved it.”

The Kings can tell that Colorado forward Joe Sakic is hurting. They watched him play left wing instead of center in Game 6, his first appearance since suffering a bruised right shoulder in Game 3. They also noticed he did not take faceoffs.

“It was all right,” Sakic told Denver reporters. “It didn’t feel bad. You want to be able to contribute. As a player, you always want to go, but you also want to be able to help the team and not hurt the team.”

Sakic had five shots on net, one fewer than team leader Stephane Yelle, who had six. Sakic played 36 shifts, logging for a total ice time of 27 minutes 51 seconds.

Colorado’s power play, which was the league’s third best during the regular season with a 22% success rate, has faltered in this series against the Kings. The Avalanche has clicked for three power-play goals in 33 chances for a 9.1% success rate.

For all the talk about the Avalanche’s superior depth, Hartley sure is relying heavily on three veteran defensemen--Ray Bourque, Adam Foote and Rob Blake.

Granted the teams played four periods, plus 2:41 of a fifth in Game 6, but there were some shocking ice times for the Avalanche’s top defensemen. Blake played a game-high 57 shifts for 40:56. Foote was next with 54 shifts for 39:35, followed by Bourque with 53 shifts for 39:11.

By contrast, winger Ziggy Palffy led the Kings with 40 shifts for 32:48. Center Bryan Smolinski played a team-high 42 shifts, but was on the ice for only 26:53.