Kings End an 11-Year Home Hex by Flyers

It’s impossible to figure out the Kings.

Monday night, the Kings blew a 7-2 lead against the Edmonton Oilers and lost, 8-7. Afterward, a sportswriter from an Edmonton newspaper wrote that the Kings “folded faster than a deck chair on the Titanic.”

However, Wednesday night the Kings managed to hold onto a lead and beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 6-3, at the Forum, breaking one of the longest jinxes in the National Hockey League.

It was the Kings’ first victory over the Flyers at the Forum in 11 years, 3 months and 3 days. No player on the current team was with the Kings the last time they beat the Flyers in Los Angeles. The Kings were 0-17-4 in their last 21 games at home against Philadelphia, with their last win (3-0) coming on Oct. 20, 1973.

The Kings are 2-28-5 against the Flyers in their last 35 games in Philadelphia. However, the Kings did beat the Flyers, 6-5, last season at the Spectrum.

The Kings got a standing ovation from a crowd of 11,381 fans after the game and a message on the scoreboard read: “It’s finally over.”

“This is a champagne night,” said Kings center Marcel Dionne, who had one goal and three assists. Dionne was playing for the Detroit Red Wings the last time the Kings beat the Flyers at the Forum.

“I’m really proud,” Dionne added. “I think we beat one of the most disciplined teams in the league. We earned the goals we scored.”

Said right wing Dave Taylor: “It’s a big relief to finally beat them. I’ve been here eight years and last year was the first time that we had won at the Spectrum (in Philadelphia.)”

With the Kings holding a 4-3 lead going into the final period, rookie defenseman Garry Galley scored two third-period goals, including an empty-netter with just 10 seconds left.

Asked at what point he felt safe, Kings Coach Pat Quinn said: “I’d be a liar if I said that I felt safe at any time because we’ve been a self-destruct hockey team in the third period. While our team was playing fairly disciplined in the third period there was the question of when some event might happen that would cause them to go into that mental shell that we’ve done for the last 10 games. It was a major step for us as a team.”

Galley, 21, was 10 and playing hockey in grade school the last time the Kings beat the Flyers at the Forum.

“It was just my night,” Galley said. “Brian MacLellan gave me a good pass on the first one and I almost missed it. It was an unselfish play because he could have shot it himself.”

It was also a big win for Quinn, who coached the Flyers for almost four seasons, leading them to the Stanley Cup final in 1980. The Flyers set a National Hockey League record with a 35-game unbeaten streak that season.

“I’d be a liar if I said that it wasn’t nice to beat them,” Quinn said. “But it holds no great significance because many of the players I coached there are gone.

“I was more concerned about that disastrous third period we had in Edmonton the other night. But we played a little smarter.”

Flyers Coach Mike Keenan said: “I think the Kings played very, very well tonight. I saw the game where the Kings were up 7-2 and blew that lead, and I’m sure that they still have not forgotten that. And tonight, they lost a two-goal lead they had and they played well enough to win in the third period.”

Said Peter Zezel, who led the Flyers with two goals: “They jumped out to a 2-0 lead and we had to fight back all the way. But we came back to tie up the game and then we got two stupid penalties and that’s what cost us the game.”

Dionne and right wing Jim Fox scored first-period goals to give the Kings a 2-0 lead.

Dionne scored his 29th goal of the season on a power-play just 4:02 into the game, and Fox scored his 22nd with 1:54 left in the first period.

But the Flyers dominated the early going in the second period to get back into the game. Zezel scored a power-play goal at 5:27 of the second period and wing Ilkka Sinisalo tied it at 2-2 when he dug a pass from Zezel out of the skates of Kings’ defenseman Mark Hardy and beat Kings goalie Darren Eliot.

However, the Kings scored on their first two shots of the second period to take a 4-2 lead. Rookie defenseman Craig Redmond got his fourth goal of the season at 13:08 and center Bernie Nicholls scored a power-play goal at 14:58.

Zezel scored his second goal of the game with 54 seconds left in the third period.

King Notes

The Kings play the St. Louis Blues on Friday and Saturday at St. Louis. . . . The Kings have recalled defenseman Russ Anderson from their minor-league affiliate at New Haven, Conn.