Kings Intimidated by Bruins in 4-1 Defeat : Boston Plays Its Usual Aggressive Game and Wins Fourth Straight

It’s not as if the Boston Bruins came up with a revolutionary approach to hockey, or showed up at the Forum Saturday night with a radically changed style.

There were no big surprises, just big players with big forearms. Boston will be Boston, and if a team--say a team like the Kings--is not prepared to fight hard for the puck, it will get pushed around for 60 minutes.

So, it was no shock that the Bruins manhandled the Kings before a crowd of 10,263 Saturday night. The 4-1 defeat marked the first time the Kings have lost by more than one goal this season.

“They do what a Boston team does--they put it in and knock you off the puck,” King Coach Pat Quinn said. “We didn’t handle that very well. They outplayed us. They check very well. They don’t do anything pretty.”

Sometimes, basic, hard-hitting hockey is not pretty, but it is effective. That’s what Boston teams are known for, and that’s what Quinn expected. But it was more than the timid Kings could handle.

The Bruins (4-2) are Boston’s other sports team at the moment, but they are as hot as the Red Sox. Saturday night’s win was the Bruins’ fourth in a row.

If the Kings (2-3) are on any kind of a streak, it would have to involve consistency, or the lack of it. In previous games, the Kings have played well for two periods and let one poor period beat them. Or, they will play well within a period, passing and handling the puck well, then lapse into mental mistakes or selfish play.

Saturday night, you could take your pick.

“In the third period, we became too individual,” Quinn said. “We had defensemen trying to stick handle all the way down. We had centers keeping it.”

Boston had come into the third period holding a 2-1 lead but took control in the third period, scoring twice.

The first goal in the third period came after the King defensemen, in a man-to-man alignment, got caught loitering in the Boston zone. Boston left wing Geoff Courtnall took off on a breakaway with only King goaltender Roland Melanson to beat.

King right wing Dave Taylor was rushing to protect the goal but was a few strides behind. Courtnall fooled Melanson, who was going to his right, and scored at 10:43.

“That was my man,” Taylor said. “I never looked and someone shot a pass around me.”

Cam Neely scored a power-play goal at 17:25 to put the game out of reach.

“We just stopped, I don’t know why,” center Bernie Nicholls said of the Kings’ effort. “Boston is not a better team. They just outworked us. They dominated the game.”

There was no dominator in the first period. The teams were testing each other--”fencing,” Quinn called it.

The Kings scored the game’s first goal, taking rare advantage of a power play. Nicholls set it up by passing to Jim Fox on the left side. Fox took the puck in toward the net and his shot caromed off Riggin’s stick and out into the crease.

Nicholls, who had been trailing the play, came in to score off the rebound.

“We just banged away two or three times,” Fox said. “It (the puck) just trickled between his legs.”

The Kings killed the first Boston power play, which came after Garry Galley was called for roughing at 14:33. While King defensemen had trouble clearing the puck from their zone, they were checking well and, in the two-minute power play, they allowed Boston only four shots.

Penalty killing is one thing going right for the Kings. They lead the league in that department, having allowed only five goals in 28 power plays.

The Bruins eventually tied the score on a goal by Tom McCarthy off a pass from Mike Milbury. The goal was the first the Kings have yielded in the first period this season.

Boston struck quickly in the second period, scoring just 25 seconds into the period to take a 2-1 lead.

Neely skated from behind the net and sent the puck to Courtnall who beat Melanson from in front of the net.

“We weren’t ready on the first shift of the second period,” Quinn said. “(After the goal) you could see the flow go to the Boston team.”

The Kings had a chance to tie it when they got their third power-play opportunity at 11:26 of the second period. The Kings put pressure on Riggin but seemed unable to mount any sort of cohesive attack.

Having failed to take advantage of the power play, the Kings appeared to lose their fire. For the remainder of the period, they handled the puck poorly and seemed unable to handle the Bruins’ aggressive forechecking.

And, in the third period, they went meekly to their third defeat.