Kings Lose 4-1 Lead in Last Period, and Jets Get Away With a Split, 6-5

Kings’ Coach Pat Quinn needed just one word to describe his team’s performance in an embarrassing 6-5 loss to the Winnipeg Jets Sunday night at the Forum in front of 10,666 fans, many of whom were booing at the end.

However, Quinn’s word can’t be printed in a family newspaper.

The Kings, who have had trouble holding leads all season, blew a 4-1 advantage as the Jets scored five goals in the third period to split the two-game series. The Kings won Saturday night, 6-4.

Considering how poorly his team played in the third period Sunday night, Quinn did a good job of restraining himself after the game.

“What do you say when your team performs like that? I’m absolutely embarrassed,” he said. . . . We played fire-wagon hockey. I’d like to ring a few necks. I’ve never been so angry with this team. I sure don’t know how that type of Jekyll and Hyde performance can come out of one team.”

Quinn refused to blame goalie Darren Eliot for the Kings’ dreadful third-period effort. “When you stink like that you can hardly point to one person,” Quinn said. “I should have benched 12 players and played with three.”

Winnipeg left wing Doug Smail scored two goals in the third period, including the game-winner with just 19 seconds left.

“Perry Turnbull did a heck of a job of keeping the puck alive,” Smail said. “He gave it to Paul MacLean and he bounced it out in front to me. All I had to do was throw it upstairs (into the net).

The Kings had dominated the first two periods, holding the Jets to just 10 shots. At one point the Jets went 20 minutes without a shot on goal.

But the Kings fell apart in the third period, in which they were outshot, 12-5.

The loss was a costly loss for the Kings (17-17-9), who had a chance to move one point ahead of the third-place Jets (21-18-4). Instead, the Jets left Los Angeles the same way they arrived--with a three-point lead over the Kings.

As expected, the mood in the Kings’ locker room was somber.

“What is this, a morgue?” center Marcel Dionne said as a group of reporters entered the dressing room.

“I think if we could play as well defensively as we play offensively, we’d be a good hockey team,” Dionne said. “Tonight was just a case of mistakes by everyone.”

Said center Bernie Nicholls, who had three assists: “We just blew it in third period. In one period we lost everything we had set out to do. That one period cost us two games.”

Said Doug Smith: “We panicked. We got disoriented and we started running around. We’ve gone from being a no-period hockey team to a one-period hockey team to a two-period hockey team. The next step for us to take is to become a third period hockey team.”

With the Jets behind, 4-1, going in the third period, Winnipeg Coach Barry Long decided to juggle his lines.

“I made some line changes and obviously they worked,” Long said. “I put (center Thomas) Steen on the left side with (Dale) Hawerchuk.

“Early in the game a few of our players were stumbling over each other. I felt we weren’t going anywhere in the first two periods. It (the line changes) threw the Kings off guard. They didn’t know who they were supposed to check out there. Once this hockey team gets rolling, look out.”

The Jets closed within two at 4-2 when Smail scored his first goal of the game just 1:58 into the final period.

With two seconds left on a hooking penalty to Kings’ defenseman Craig Redmond, the Jets got a power-play goal when Dave Ellett beat Eliot with a slap shot from just inside the blue line, making the score 4-3 with 14:20 to go.

The Jets tied it at 4-4 with 9:47 left when Turnbull banged in a rebound of a shot by Dave Babych off the top of the crossbar.

However, defenseman Mark Hardy scored his second goal of the game with with 8:32 left to give the Kings a 5-4 lead.

“It was kind of a downer at the time,” Winnipeg defenseman Randy Carlyle said of Hardy’s goal. “But there was still a lot of time left in the game.”

But the Jets tied it at 5-5 with 5:29 when Hawerchuk scored his 27th goal of the season.

And, it looked as if the game was headed for overtime until Smail won it in the closing seconds.

The Kings called timeout after Smail’s goal, but they couldn’t get the tying goal.

King Notes Jet defenseman Randy Carlyle was hit in the face by a loose puck with 5:13 left in the first period. Carlyle suffered a cut on the bridge of his nose and was taken to the locker room to get stitches. . . . The Kings play the Toronto Maple Leafs Wednesday night at the Forum. The Kings are 2-0 against the Maple Leafs this season.