A Comeback for Quinn--and the Kings : Ex-Flyer Coach Sees L.A. Rally for a 4-4 Tie in Philadelphia

Coach Pat Quinn of the Kings returned to Philadelphia Thursday night for the first time since he was fired by the Flyers on March 18, 1982.

And the Kings gave Quinn a nice homecoming gift.

Trailing, 4-0, early in the second period, they staged their biggest comeback of the season, scoring four consecutive goals in the period to earn a 4-4 overtime tie.

Coincidentally, the last game Quinn coached here also ended in a 4-4 tie, against the Chicago Black Hawks. Quinn was fired the next day. He attended law school for two years before he was hired by the Kings.

Quinn, who led the Flyers to a National Hockey League-record 35-game unbeaten streak and the Stanley Cup final in 1980, is still popular here. He received a standing ovation from a crowd of 16,721 fans before the game and was mobbed by the media afterward.

Quinn said he wasn’t trying to prove anything to the Flyer management.

Asked if he was still bitter about his firing, Quinn said: “We’ve rehashed that a lot of times. It’s in the past, and it’s gone. I’ve got a future with this organization (the Kings). I love this building, and it’s nice to come back. But I’m not sure if I would have been feeling this good if we had lost, 4-0.

“We looked more tentative than they did at the start of the game. But I thought they may have gotten fatheaded when they went up 4-0. It happens to a lot of teams. A point (for a tie) is a point, especially considering where we were at the beginning.”

Center Bernie Nicholls led the Kings with consecutive goals at 13:32 and 16:01 of the second period. Nicholls has scored 35 goals this season.

“The Flyers went into a lapse, and they tightened up after we got out first goal,” Nicholls said. “We got on a roll and kept it going. Once we got the momentum, we were able to break them down.

“They scored four goals early, but we averaged five a game and knew we could come back.”

Philadelphia Coach Mike Keenan said his team was concentrating on trying to stop King center Marcel Dionne instead of Nicholls. Dionne did not score a goal but had one assist.

“We had (Ron) Sutter on Dionne as much as possible,” Keenan said. “But Nicholls was the man who did the job against us.”

The Flyers (29-16-7), who are 1-4-1 in their last six games, were booed off the ice.

King goalie Darren Eliot, who was in the nets when the Kings beat the Rangers, 7-5, Tuesday night at the Forum, started his second straight game.

However, Eliot looked tentative as the Flyers scored on their first shift of the game.

“They kind of jumped us at the beginning,” Eliot said.

The Flyers scored just 33 seconds into the game when defenseman Mark Howe got his 13th goal of the season on a rebound of a shot by Brian Propp.

The Flyers had a four-on-three power play after King wing Dave Taylor and Howe got two minutes apiece for roughing, and King defenseman Jay Wells went to the penalty box for holding Tim Kerr.

Propp and Doug Crossman passed the puck back and forth across the ice before Propp scored a power-play goal on a slap shot from just outside the right faceoff circle with 1:44 left in the first period to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead.

The Kings had a power play at the start of the second period, but the Flyers scored a shorthanded goal 34 seconds into the period to lead, 3-0.

The Kings had just three shots on their first three power plays.

Propp gave center Dave Poulin a nice pass, and Poulin skated around Nicholls, who was back playing defense, to beat Eliot for his 15th goal of the season.

The Flyers scored again less than a minute later when Ron Sutter got his eighth goal of the season at 1:13, making it 4-0.

Carl Mokosak got the Kings on the board with 15:57 left in the second period when he scored off a rebound of a shot by Steve Shutt.

Defenseman Brian Engblom scored a power-play goal on a slap shot with 12:20 left in the second period to close it to 4-2.

And then Nicholls got hot, scoring his first goal with 6:28 left in the second period when he came around from behind the net and took a pass from Jim Fox.

Nicholls scored again with 3:59 left when a slap shot hit the skate of Flyer defenseman Brad Marsh and went into the net past goalie Pelle Lindbergh.

“Brad was in front of me, and I couldn’t see Nicholls,” Lindbergh said. “It hit him (Marsh) and went through.”

The Kings had a couple of good chances in the third period.

With 8:37 left, Lindbergh made a good save with his left pad on a shot by Dionne from about 10 feet. Lindbergh also made a nice save on a shot by King right wing Jim Fox with 7:36 left.

The Kings also had a chance to win the game in the five-minute overtime period. But rookie defenseman Craig Redmond hit the right post on a shot from the faceoff circle with 2:57 left.

King Notes The Kings (23-21-10) will play the Washington Capitals tonight (Channel 9, delayed, 6 p.m., PST) in the second-game of the three-game trip. . . . The Flyers are 0-1-7 in overtime games this season.