Kings, Maple Leafs Draw It Out in 1-1 Tie

Monday’s matinee at the Forum brought a crowd of 10,942 indoors on a gorgeous, wind-swept day.

It was hard to understand the attraction after the Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs skated to a hard-checking, defense-dominated 1-1 tie.

If not for the mostly brilliant performances by goaltenders Rollie Melanson of the Kings and Allan Bester of the Maple Leafs, the holiday crowd might have been better off outdoors.

“It was not a great game for the fans,” said Luc Robitaille, whose first-period goal was his 33rd of the season, tying a King rookie record.

For the Maple Leafs, though, it wasn’t bad.

They threw everything they had at Melanson, and for the most part had it all thrown back.

So when they scored on a virtual tap-in by Steve Thomas to tie the game with 32 seconds left in the first period, then made it stand up the rest of the way, they weren’t too unhappy at all.

“Nobody wants to play for a tie,” Maple Leaf Coach John Brophy said, “but you want to get points out of every game and cut the losses. That’s how you crawl into the playoffs.”

The Maple Leafs (23-29-6) actually pulled within four points of the lead in the Norris Division, where the division-leading Detroit Red Wings have lost as many games as they have won.

King Coach Mike Murphy, meanwhile, was happy to have Melanson on his side.

“If not for an excellent performance by Rollie, they very easily could have won the game,” Murphy said of the Maple Leafs.

Melanson stopped 34 of 35 shots, while Toronto’s Bester stopped 39 of 40.

But, as Bester said: “I didn’t have a lot of difficult shots, but a lot of shots.”

The one that Melanson didn’t stop was made after Thomas, skating along the right side, had his centering pass deflected by King defensemen Steve Duchesne.

The puck caromed off Melanson, who also had moved to deflect the pass, and wound up in front of the right post, where Thomas tapped it into the unguarded net.

“It was an unfortunate thing,” Melanson said, “but they had six or seven two-on-ones in the first period. If we can stop 7 or 8 out of 10, or 9 out of 10, we’ll do pretty good.”

Melanson was under attack most of the day.

“Every time I looked up, they had a two-on-one coming down,” he said. “We survived it, but we know we’ve got to tighten up because there are some teams who are really going to burn us.”

The Kings, who are 1-5-1 since reaching .500 on Jan. 28, seemed relieved to escape with the tie, which brought their record to 23-27-7.

They scored their only goal early on, Robitaille finding the upper left corner of the net on a slap shot from the slot at 5:24 of the first period.

Marcel Dionne’s shot from the left circle rebounded off Bester to Robitaille, who fired the puck past the Toronto goaltender to equal the rookie record set by Steve Bozek in the 1981-82 season.

Robitaille, who turns 21 today, said he was unaware that he was close to Bozek’s record.

“But if I stop here,” he said, “I don’t think anybody will remember me.”

After the first period, the Kings and Maple Leafs locked horns for the final 45 minutes.

“I like the fact that our team played a game where it hung in and gritted it out and battled,” Murphy said. “Every night you come out there, you can’t skate and fly and be up and down the ice.

“Some nights, it’s just in the cards that you’ve got to find another way to get a point.”

Some days, too.

The unusual 1:05 p.m. starting time may have affected the Kings’ aggressiveness, Murphy said.

“We weren’t really sharp mentally early on,” he said. “Our meeting before the game wasn’t sharp and we didn’t have a lot of pepper early in the game. I don’t know why. I guess we didn’t prepare as best we could.”

But, he added: “We played better in the second half of the game. That’s a feather in our cap.”

It seems that the fans who stuck it out should be applauded, too.

“For somebody who comes to watch a show,” Robitaille said, “it could have been better.”

King Notes

Bernie Nicholls of the Kings failed to produce a point for the first time in 10 games. . . . The Kings’ Dean Kennedy suffered a hip pointer in the first period and didn’t play the rest of the game. He’s doubtful for Wednesday night’s 7:30 game at the Forum against the Washington Capitals. . . . With one more point, the Kings will match their point total of last season, when their 23-49-8 record was the second-worst in the league. They have 23 games left in the regular season.