Kings Hurt by Mistakes Again, Lose in Overtime : Penguins Rally for Three Goals in the Third Period En Route to a 4-3 Victory

It’s getting awfully crowded in Pat Quinn’s doghouse. Cozy, too, as the same King players continue to make mistakes that lose hockey games.

In their 4-3 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday night, the Kings allowed Pittsburgh three goals in the third period. At least two of those were the result of errors by King defensemen.

The Kings (1-2) have blown 2-0 leads in all three of their games this season.

“We’re playing well, we just don’t know how to win,” said Jim Fox. “I keep looking for the missing link. We seem to be giving up.”

Fox scored the first goal for the Kings, his second of the year, as Pittsburgh’s Mario Lemieux was trying to clear the puck out of his own zone.

Lemieux’s errant pass was intercepted by Jay Wells, and Fox got the goal on a rebound off the stick of Penguin goaltender Roberto Romano at 1:52 in the second period, eliciting a round of boos from the crowd of 9,103 at the Civic Arena.

The Pittsburgh fans liked it even less when the Dave (Tiger) Williams scored for the Kings a few minutes later.

Anyone paying attention to the Kings’ tendencies this season would have been able to guess, with a 2-0 lead, what would happen next.

With one minute elapsed in the third period, Pittsburgh got a faceoff in the Kings’ zone, to the right of goalie Roland Melanson, and defenseman Jim Johnson took a shot that Melanson stopped but did not clear out of the crease. Right winger Randy Cunneyworth scored on the deflection.

“We played pretty well; Rollie was sharp tonight,” Quinn said. “There’s not much you can do about a faceoff.”

Pittsburgh scored again at 7:59 in the third period right after a line change. Penguin forwards Terry Ruskowski and Ron Duguay stalled with the puck until Lemieux came on the ice and immediately picked up the puck in the slot. He scored through defensemen Larry Playfair and Garry Galley.

It was only one of several puck-handling clinics the 22-year-old Lemieux put on for the Kings. “You simply can’t give him any space, he’ll score,” Quinn said.

The Kings answered with Marcel Dionne’s goal at 8:38 in the period for a 3-2 lead. It was vintage Dionne. Romano had wandered out of the crease and Dionne backhanded the puck in while off balance.

But the Kings’ defense let down again a minute later.

Playfair tried a pass to clear the puck out of the Kings’ zone. But it was right to Pittsburgh’s Craig Simpson, who put enough moves on Playfair to get around him and bring Melanson out of the net. Simpson scored unassisted to force the overtime.

“It was a bad pass,” Quinn said. “That’s just an athlete not executing. The last man in the zone has to make a safe play. I think they try too hard to make a perfect pass instead of a safe one.”

The Kings skated aggressively in the overtime period, but Lemieux attracts the puck like a magnet. “When he’s on the ice, we are aware of him, you can be sure of that,” Fox said.

Lemieux had been on the ice just 10 seconds after a line change when he got the puck, made a move around defender Dean Kennedy and rushed the net to get a backhanded goal.

“I got the puck in my own zone,” Lemieux said. “The defense was standing still at the blue line. I looked up the ice and saw one man I had to get around. I just did it.”

The 4-0 Penguins are the hottest team in the NHL at the moment and their play late in the game showed why.

That furious third period and crisp overtime were in contrast to what Quinn called a “conservative” first period.

The Penguins had two power plays in the first period, which the Kings killed. Pittsburgh had three power plays overall and the Kings two, with neither team scoring.

The first for Pittsburgh came when defenseman Bob Bourne was called for interference with only 23 seconds elapsed in the game.

With Bourne sitting in the penalty box, the Kings were without one of their best penalty killers. The penalty killing unit allowed the Penguins to take three solid shots.