It’s No Rose Garden for Kings in New York, 5-0 : Rangers Score 4 Goals in Second Period and Send L.A. to Fourth Loss in Row

Things have gone from bad to worse for the Kings, who opened a six-game trip with a 5-0 loss to the New York Rangers Friday night before 17,412 fans at Madison Square Garden.

It was the fourth straight loss for the Kings, who are 1-7. Their only win this season was a 4-3 victory over the Rangers on Oct. 16 at the Forum.

King goalie Darren Eliot, making his third straight start, looked shaky, especially while giving up four second-period goals as the Rangers broke the game open. Eliot is 0-5 and has allowed 27 goals this season.

“Right now, it’s not the goalie’s fault,” General Manager Rogie Vachon said when asked if he is trying to make a trade for a goalie. “There are some guys here who aren’t pulling their load, and they know who they are. I’m not going to stand it too long, either. If they want to play, they’re not going to be playing here. I’m not going to lose 12 games in a row with the same guys.”

Coach Pat Quinn didn’t blame Eliot either.

“I’d hate to play goal in front of this team,” Quinn said. “They could board up the nets, and they’d still score. When you’re 1-7, you can’t point the finger at any one guy.

“We gave them an easy gift on their first goal, and after that, our guys became petrified. We’ve become worse as the trough has deepened”.

Said Eliot: “We want to shake this thing. I know the fans will look at the goalies and point the finger at us, but it’s not just the goalies.”

The Rangers got a good game from goalie John Vanbiesbrouck, who made 27 saves in his second career shutout.

“We came into our own tonight,” Vanbiesbrouck said. “The defense played well in our own end. Everybody played their game.”

The Rangers (4-4) have won three straight.

Defenseman Reijo Ruotsalainen scored two goals and had one assist to lead the Rangers.

Center Mark Pavelich and left wing Mark Osborne each had one goal and one assist. Defenseman Ron Greschner scored a power-play goal and had one assist.

The Kings dominated the first period, outshooting the Rangers, who seemed out of sync, 14-3. The Rangers did not have a shot in the final 11 minutes of the opening period.

But the Kings failed to capitalize on three first-period power plays, including a five-on-three advantage. The Kings were 0-7 on the power play against the Rangers and are 5-42 on the power play this season.

The Rangers had consecutive power plays at the start of the second period after an interference penalty on King defenseman Brian Engblom and a tripping penalty on right wing Paul Guay.

Greschner gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead at 4:55 of the period when he scored his first goal of the season on the power play off a pass from center Mike Ridley.

“We didn’t skate much in the first period,” Greschner said. “We had to try and get a rhythm going.”

Pavelich scored on a backhander at 7:27 of the second period, when he beat Eliot on the glove side to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead. Osborne scored on a rebound shot with 5:16 left in the period, and Ruotsalainen scored his first goal on a shot from the point on a power play with 2:05 left.

The Rangers outshot the Kings, 14-8, in the second period. The Kings have been outscored, 19-7, in the second period this season.

“We lost it in the second period,” Engblom said. “We just started scrambling around after they got that power-play goal at the start of the period.”

Ruotsalainen scored his second goal at 5:29 of the third period off a faceoff.

King Notes It was also a rough night for King Coach Pat Quinn. Late in the third period, a fan behind the King bench stumbled down some steps and fell into the glass atop the boards. One of the pieces of glass broke and just missed Quinn. “It didn’t hit me, but a couple of the guys got hit,” Quinn said. “It was just an unfortunate incident. . . . “The Kings play the New Jersey Devils tonight at the Meadowlands Arena (4:30 p.m. PDT). . . .Ranger defenseman James Patrick missed the game because of a pinched nerve in his neck suffered in practice on Thursday. . . . Ranger right wing Tomas Sandstrom suffered a bruised right shoulder in a game against the Devils last Wednesday and was held out of Friday’s game.