Vancouver Maintains Mastery Over Kings, 6-4

VANCOUVER — It’s clear to the Kings by now that the Vancouver Canucks have their number. The Kings have been thoroughly cased by the Canucks; as proof, Vancouver submits its three wins in three meetings this season.

The third, a long and penalty-filled game, came Tuesday night in front of 8,283 at the Pacific Coliseum. This time the Kings went down swinging, 6-4.

As in fighting. Again the Kings found that every foray into the Canuck zone was fraught with danger. A lone skater carrying the puck runs a gauntlet of grabbing and clutching hands.

“We’re the kind of team that likes to move the puck around,” King captain Dave Taylor said. “They didn’t let us do that. It’s frustrating.”

That frustration led to penalties which often lead to power plays, which--with Vancouver’s fourth-ranked power play--often leads to goals.

The Canucks converted four out of five power plays, while the Kings converted three of eight. In fact, the first seven goals of the game were scored with the man advantage.

The Kings could complain yet again about their crummy travel schedule that packs them on a trip like this one--three games in four nights in three cities. But King Coach Pat Quinn will have none of it.

“That’s ‘Kings’ Excuse Book’, Page One,” he said.

Quinn suggested that instead of jet lag the Kings were suffering from lagging aggression.

“We couldn’t get the job done in front of the nets and along the boards,” he said. “In the three games we’ve played, they’ve won all the little battles. That’s what wins hockey games.”

The loss halts the Kings’ three-game undefeated streak and hinders their progress toward .500. With a 15-18-3 record, and with a win by Winnipeg Tuesday night, the Kings lost ground in the Smythe Division.

They remain in fourth place. Vancouver (10-22-3) gets the moral victory but remains in fifth place.

The Kings went into the third period with a 3-2 lead and lost it by allowing four goals to their one.

“They came out strong in the third period and we skated right by the puck,” Quinn said.

The game had the same characteristics as the first two meetings in late November. The last home-and-home series between the teams was an ugly affair. The Kings were beaten, 11-5, in the first game at Vancouver, a match highlighted by 84 minutes of penalties.

The Kings were the naughtiest in that game, allowing the Canucks nine power plays. Vancouver scored on four. Vancouver beat the Kings at home the next night, 5-3.

A similar pattern emerged Tuesday night. The game was teetering on the edge, flirting with careening out of control.

That happened in the second period. The Canucks held a 2-1 lead coming into the period but were trailing, 3-2, at the end of it. Predictably, the Kings scored their two goals on power plays.

The first, on a pass from Jimmy Carson to Morris Lukowich, came in the midst of bizarre stream of four penalties called in less than 2 1/2 minutes.

Lukowich’s game-tying power-play goal came at 6:41 in the second period.

Eighteen seconds after that, Carson scored on a power play to give the Kings their first lead of the game.

After that string of penalties and the ill-will they bred, the confrontation that had been on the edge of breaking out, crossed over.

Dave (Tiger) Williams was given a 10-minute misconduct, and the Kings vented their anger on the Canucks, and Vancouver did likewise.

The ensuing brawl lasted a few minutes, drew a few penalties and, as usual with fighting in hockey, settled nothing.

The early part of the first period was remarkable in two respects: With 10 minutes played in the period, there were an aggregate six shots on goal and, the big surprise, no penalties called.

That uncharacteristic episode of passive hockey ended abruptly when the Kings were called for too many men on the ice. The penalty gave the Canucks their first power play.

Vancouver’s first two shots of the power play were stopped by King goaltender Darren Eliot. However, the second rebound slid out to Barry Pederson who scored at 12:55.

The Kings capitalized on their man advantage as well. Marcel Dionne took a cross-ice pass from Luc Robitaille and scored to make it 1-1 at 16:38.

The rest of the period, like much of the game, was just a lull between power plays. The Canucks scored on their second power play to give them a 2-1 lead.

The Kings had 50 seconds of a power play, which they did not score on, to end the period.