Kings Bid for .500 Is Foiled by the Rangers, 2-2

Only one win away from reaching .500, the Kings were held to a 2-2 tie in overtime by the New York Rangers Monday night in front of 11,091 fans at the Forum.

The Kings had the better chances in overtime, with successive face-offs in the Ranger zone.

Yet the first shot on goal was from New York center Walt Poddubny less than five feet in front of the net. King goaltender Rollie Melanson made a diving save to preserve the tie.

It was the second consecutive overtime game for the Kings (20-21-6). The Rangers are 18-20-8 and have played more overtime games than any team in the NHL.

The Kings have been trying to reach .500 again since they were 2-2 last Oct. 4.

The .500 mark was the Kings’ early-season goal but now it might be too late for the Kings to be setting goals.

It might be enough that they are coming together as a team and putting together solid efforts every game.

The Kings had to struggle to do anything Monday night. The Rangers worked hard, checked hard and hardly allowed the Kings room to move or set up offensively.

New York came into the third period tied with the Kings, 1-1, then went ahead on a goal by Don Maloney at 2:43.

The Kings tied it at 2-2 on a great effort by Morris Lukowich and Steve Duchesne. Lukowich, being hounded by Ranger defenders, got off a pass to Duchesne, who scored on an off-balance shot.

Two power-play goals in the first two periods were all the fireworks created by the teams. It was a matchup that some had thought would bring out more offensive activity than that.