Kings Lose in Quebec, Wrapping Up 0-5 Trip : Ashton’s Hat Trick for Nordiques Is Overshadowed by Fights and Penalties

A five-game trip in which the Kings lost every game, in which a key player was injured and morale was stretched to the limit, came to a bitter end here Tuesday night.

The Kings (3-8-0) lost to the Quebec Nordiques, 6-2, in front of 13,352 at the Colisee, and they also lost a few of the several fights that were the most memorable elements of the game.

“We worked like hell, we played pretty good hockey in the first period and came up with no points,” Quinn said, forgetting for the moment his team’s one goal in that period. “The disappointment is in working hard and not having a result. In the end, we were a tired team.”

The Kings are a tired team and a frustrated one. They have come close in their games but have not won. They lost winger Bryan Erickson in New Jersey with a strained knee. According to Quinn, they have had one good practice in eight days.

The Nordiques (6-2-2) knew it and made the most of it. Especially left wing Brent Ashton, who scored a hat trick. He scored all three of his goals in the second period.

As usual, the Kings scored first and failed to hold the lead. Jim Fox took a pass from Craig Redmond to score at 4:44. It was a fine play, one of several the Kings mounted in the first period. They outshot the Nordiques, 15-10, but Quebec goaltender Mario Gosselin stopped nearly everything.

“Our first period was excellent,” Quinn said. “We got good shots, but we couldn’t seem to cash in. We had hoped to get a good start. Our guys did exactly what we wanted.”

The Nordiques got one goal in the first period to make it 1-1 going into the second. It was as if a new game had started. What had been a controlled and disciplined hockey game disintegrated into one filled with fighting.

There were 27 penalties in the game, 24 of them in the second and third periods.

“Starting in the second period, when we gave up the gift goal in the front of the net and we gave up the goal on the power play, we played like a tired team,” Quinn said.

The first ‘gift’ goal came as Peter Stastny skated with the puck behind the net, dragging King defensemen with him. Alone in front of the net was Ashton. Stastny’s centering pass to Ashton was untouched, as was Ashton’s shot into the King goal.

Quebec made it 3-1 on a short-handed goal by Ashton. It was one of six power plays the Kings failed to convert.

Ashton scored again to give Quebec a 4-1 lead at the end of the period. As a measure of their hopelessness, the Kings were outshot, 14-4, in the period.

After the Nordiques scored again to make it 5-1 early in the third period, the real fighting began.

Although the Quebec fans had been vocal earlier in the game, they took their support to another level by throwing drinks and cups into the Kings’ bench area.

After some time, security officials began to remove fans from their seats.

Quinn said there was ‘no response’ from security officials and eventually King players began to retaliate.

“There was this one guy who had been shouting at Larry (Playfair),” Bernie Nicholls said. “He threw his beer on Larry. I threw a water bottle at him and he didn’t do that anymore.”

The fight on the ice, or at least the most all-encompassing of them, began at 7:16 of the third period. It started with Nicholls and defenseman Robert Picard, then erupted to include every player on the ice.

At one point, goaltender Gosselin, who had been trying to break up a fight taking place in front of him, was charged with unsportsmanlike conduct and a misconduct. He was so irate at the call that he smacked his stick to the ice, breaking it in two.

Mark Hardy also broke things in the fight. Hardy was penalized for fighting and skated off the ice, raging. He went into the tunnel and threw a chair against the wall, splintering the chair.

After several minutes of fighting and then an equal amount of time sorting out who did what, game officials assessed 16 penalties to eight players. Dean Kennedy and Playfair of the Kings were given game misconducts, as were David Shaw and Ken Quinney of the Nordiques.

Scuffles continued after each stop in play thereafter, making the third period not only long, but ugly as well.

Quebec scored again, at 13:11 to make it 6-1. King Jimmy Carson’s goal at 13:52 did little to balance the game.

King Notes

Brent Ashton was the last Nordique to get a hat trick at home. Before Tuesday night, he had scored three goals on Dec. 14, 1985, against New Jersey. . . . The loss for the Kings was the worst of the season. Eight of eleven King games have been decided by one goal. . . . Peter Stastny had one goal and three assists, giving him 15 points in 8 games.