Kings Get to .500 in Raucous Style--a 10-5 Victory : Nine Players Score Against Two Penguin Goaltenders in a 41-Shot Outburst

Toward the end, when the Kings were five goals ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins Wednesday night, thoughts flew back to the early season and the Kings’ inability to hold a lead.

This time, however, the revitalized Kings not only held the lead, they also pressed their skates to Pittsburgh’s throat, cutting off any chance of a Penguin comeback in a 10-5 Kings’ win before 8,902 raucous fans in the Forum.

Finally, the Kings reached their long-sought goal of .500, at 21-21-6. The Penguins (17-21-8) lost their fourth game in a row.

The Kings broke open a tie game in the second period by scoring five goals, then continued to pull away. They outshot the Penguins, who used two goaltenders, 44-30.

Pittsburgh’s All-Star center, Mario Lemieux, played his first game since a knee injury, and his presence alone was thought to boost his team’s hopes. The Penguins had won only two games during Lemieux’s 13-game absence.

Lemieux was no savior, with one goal and one assist, and was understandably sluggish, underscoring the risk of relying on one player as much as the Penguins do.

Happily for the Kings, they have a large selection of scorers. Nine of them scored Wednesday night, Bob Bourne twice.

The Kings had three goals in the first period, five in the second and two in the third. Most of those came in clusters, as if Pittsburgh collapsed and needed time to regroup.

The best regroupers in the National Hockey League would have been hard-pressed to recover from the deficits the Kings placed on the Penguins.

The first period was wide open, immediately. Pittsburgh began by blasting shots hard and fast at King goaltender Rollie Melanson. At the other end of the ice, five minutes had passed before the Kings got a shot on goal.

However, they scored on their third shot on goal, ending a 27-game scoring drought for Bourne.

Bourne scored on the rebound of Sean McKenna’s backhand. The last time Bourne scored a goal was Nov. 18 in Washington. He had his second NHL hat trick in that game, and at the time appeared to be on his way to an excellent scoring season.

Lemieux is having an excellent scoring season despite missing the 13 games with sprained ligaments in his right knee. He got back into the scoring mode in this one by tying it at 9:48.

Bob Errey came around the Kings net and threw a shot at the net, which Melanson stopped. Lemieux poked the rebound in to score on his third shift of the game.

There was a flurry of goals--three in 2 1/2 minutes--that served to give the Penguins the lead, tied it, then gave the Kings the lead.

That 3-2 lead was lost courtesy of the Lemieux-Errey combination. Lemieux used his size (6 feet, 4 inches) to muscle around King defenseman Dean Kennedy and shoot. Melanson made the save, but Errey knocked in the rebound.

The first period ended at 3-3, a score that equals the offensive output of many complete games.

The second period was no less wild. The momentum had swung, however. The Kings scored five goals to the Penguins’ one.

The Kings began to out-skate the Penguins, as exemplified on Bourne’s second goal, in which he picked up the puck from Phil Sykes and out-raced the Penguin defense to score against goaltender Gilles Meloche at 5:02.

Pittsburgh Coach Bob Berry had seen enough. The 36-year-old Meloche had allowed four goals on 15 shots, and Berry sent in Roberto Romano to replace him.

Romano was bombarded. The Kings sent 14 shots at him in the period (Meloche had faced three). By contrast, Melanson faced only six.

Once the Kings started their offensive machine, it seemed as if every line rush came back with a solid scoring chance. And seemingly everyone scored.

Bernie Nicholls, who last scored 14 games ago, tallied on a power play to make it 5-3. Luc Robitaille, who seemingly is considered to be in a slump if he goes one period without a point, scored to make it 6-3.

Even Dave (Tiger) Williams, no slick stickhandler, scored. With the Kings now ahead, 7-3, it began to look as if they had put the Penguins on ice.

A goal by Randy Cunneyworth at 12:05 put a tiny dent in the King lead, but Pittsburgh was still behind, 8-4, at the end of the period.

Kennedy and McKenna scored in the third period for the Kings, who raised their fourth-place point total in the Smythe Division to 48, which would be good enough to lead the Norris Division.

Williams had a penalty shot in the third period, but Romano made the save.