Tiger Williams Feeds on the Leafs as Kings Win Third Straight, 4-3

Tiger Williams had lunch Thursday with his old boss, Harold Ballard, which at the time probably seemed like a nice idea to both the Kings’ left wing and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 83-year-old owner. Now, however, Ballard might not be so sure.

“Every time I get near the old fella, something positive always seems to happen,” Williams said.

Thursday night, Williams, who played six seasons in Toronto, gave his former team food for thought by shaking loose from the Maple Leaf defense, positioning himself alone in front of goalie Allan Bester and knocking in a pass from Jim Fox at 12:51 of the third period for the winning goal in the Kings’ 4-3 victory before a crowd of 7,963 at the Forum.

“Why was I so open?” Williams asked. “They (the Maple Leafs) didn’t think I could score, so no one was guarding me. Maybe the Caesar salad I had . . . helped me. I don’t know what the hell happened.”

Maybe the meal wasn’t such good luck for Ballard, someone suggested.

“Heck,” Williams countered, “he just won the Grey Cup in Canadian football (with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats), his hockey team (the Maple Leafs) is one game under .500 and his company’s stock has gone up $100 in the last six months. He doesn’t have too much to complain about.”

And for a change, the Kings have something to be happy about--three straight victories. That’s their longest winning streak since February 1985 and their first three-consecutive win string at home since November 1984. It also came on a night when, except for a couple of fluke plays, they got a good game from the defense to go with a fine performance by goalie Darren Eliot.

“We were pretty good with our defense and goaltending,” Coach Pat Quinn said. “Really good. Our forwards did a good job offensively, but they were airheads as far as defense is concerned. We gave those first two goals away.”

Only after the Kings had taken a 2-0 lead, though. They began the night fifth in the National Hockey League in power-play conversions (33 of 133 for 24.8%) and quickly added to that on a two-man advantage to grab a 1-0 lead.

Russ Courtnall and Wendel Clark both went off at 5:24 for Toronto--Clark for hooking during the delay on Courtnall’s tripping violation. Then, 12 seconds later, Luc Robitaille handled Bernie Nicholls’ rebound and knocked it past Bester. That increased Robitaille’s league lead in scoring for rookies to 29 points--teammate Jimmy Carson is next with 22--with a third-period assist for Robitaille still to come.

The Kings made it 2-0 at 6:28 of the second period, again off a rebound. This time, though, Bester’s kick save went out to the blue line, where defenseman Mark Hardy, who on Robitaille’s goal collected the 200th assist of his career, made the stop and then blasted the puck into the net for his first goal in the last 57 games.

Toronto, dropping into a tie for first place with Minnesota in the Norris Division after three straight losses, came back to tie it at 2-2 by the end of the period on a couple of unusual goals.

The first, at 12:12, came on a penalty shot by Rick Vaive, the first successful penalty conversion ever against the Kings, the first attempted against them since Feb. 12, 1981, and the fourth one in the NHL this season. Larry Playfair’s hook of Vaive near the King net set it up.

“It’s not planned, it’s more of a reaction thing,” Quinn said of Playfair’s takedown. “You just say, ‘Holy smokes, he’s getting away from me,’ and tug him down.”

And maybe it wasn’t that bad a play under the circumstances.

“A penalty shot should come when he ropes him down on a clear breakaway,” King defenseman Jay Wells said. “Larry wasn’t truly beat. That call could have gone either way. That could easily have been a two-minute penalty, and if it had been a tie game, then the referee wouldn’t have called it. . . . We’ll take that penalty. You never want him (the shooter) to go straight in.”

Anyway, the crowd rose to its feet and cheered loudly as Vaive circled the puck at center ice--and then they booed as the Maple Leaf right wing went to the bench for a new stick. He came back, started his approach straight on and, about five feet away from Eliot, wristed it into the net.

“I was scared as hell,” Vaive said. “I just wanted to go down. I just about missed the puck at center (ice). That would’ve been sweet. It was quite a relief. It kind of got us started in the second.”

Indeed, Toronto scored some two minutes later, when Eliot probably would have been better off without any defensemen. Vaive, stationed on the boards to the right of the Kings’ goal, passed across the crease to Courtnall--and the puck bounced off Playfair and past Eliot.

Vaive, who began the night with two goals and seven assists, got his second goal of the game to make it 3-2, Toronto, 57 seconds into the third period. It came on a slapshot from the faceoff circle to the left of Eliot, with Al Iafrate and Courtnall getting assists.

But Vaive’s scoring spree was overshadowed by that of Hardy, who got his second goal of the game at 4:34 of the third period to tie the score at 3-3. It marked the third two-goal game in his career.

King Notes

Will wonders never cease: Fans in Toronto feeling sorry for Harold Ballard, the Maple Leafs’ curmudgeon owner? It’s true, says the Toronto Star’s Jim Proudfoot, who writes: “The outrageous Ballard did everything he he could think of to make himself unpopular, but now the thing is out of hand. He’s getting to be one of Toronto’s favorite citizens, whether he enjoys it or not.” . . . The Kings will close out this home stand Saturday night with their second game of the season against the Chicago Blackhawks.