The Carson Show Reappears in Kings’ 8-3 Win : Rookie, 18, Rediscovers Scoring Touch as His Two Goals Lead Rout of Jets

Having scored only one goal in nine games, 18-year-old rookie Jimmy Carson was feeling a strange new sensation creep in. Fear.

Never in his hockey career had he failed, for so long, to do what came so naturally. The youngest player in the National Hockey League had started his first season as a pro where he left off as junior.

Carson was scoring goals, and a lot of them.

Then it stopped. King Coach Mike Murphy had a talk with Carson last Sunday. “He was pretty tough on me,” Carson said.

Something clicked. Carson’s scoring touch is back. It returned Tuesday night in time for 7,836 at the Forum to watch him score two goals and add an assist in the Kings’ 8-3 win over the Winnipeg Jets.

In the locker room, Carson was accepting the good-natured ribbing from his teammates, who are undoubtably relieved that his goal-production is back.

“Quote from me,” offered Bernie Nicholls. “He was showing off for his parents.” Carson’s father was in town for the game.

“Quote from me,” added King minority owner Bruce McNall. “It’s about time.”

Carson’s resurgence will be key to the Kings’ drive to the playoffs. The team is 25-28-7 and well ahead of fifth-place Vancouver in the Smythe Division. The Jets, who at 33-23-6 are tied with Calgary for second in the division, are virtually assured of a playoff spot.

Carson was not the only King to come up with a timely game.

Newly acquired goaltender Al Jensen got his first win as a King. Jensen, 28, had played all but one of his NHL games with the Washington Capitals. He was traded to the Kings Feb. 14, and after a week of practice with the team, he got the start against the Jets.

Jensen allowed a goal on the first shot he faced but recovered and made 18 saves.

Defenseman Dave Langevin had three assists, tying the best offensive output the Kings have had from a defenseman this season.

Langevin had a career with the Minnesota North Stars cut off when he was released by the team in training camp before the season. The rugged defenseman had played on four Stanley Cup teams with the New York Islanders.

The Kings signed Langevin as a free agent Feb. 4, hoping his experience and leadership would yield immediate results. They did. Langevin flew into Toronto and played well that night.

He continues to build from that solid base.

And the Kings are attempting to build a base of victories on which they can stand through the 20 remaining games of the season.

After they exploded for four goals in the first period, no one would expect the Kings to match that output in the second. But they did and went into the third period with the 8-3 lead.

It wasn’t that easy at the start of the game. The Jets’ Dale Hawerchuk scored at 1:12 in the first period, eliciting a groan from the Forum crowd. But Dave (Tiger) Williams converted a pass from Carson at 8:27 to make it 1-1.

That was the first of four goals--three for the Kings--that were scored in 2 minutes 46 seconds of the period.

Bob Bourne gave the Kings a lead on a short-handed goal, then Dave Ellett scored a power-play goal for the Jets to tie it.

Then the Kings’ Lyle Phair, another newcomer, scored his first NHL goal. Phair took a pass from Jim Fox and lured Jet goaltender Eldon Reddick out of the crease. Phair’s shot was actually intended to be a pass to Nicholls, but Jet defenseman Tim Watters, sliding across the crease to block it, deflected it into his own net.

Phair’s goal was a start on his redemption after blowing a chance to prove his worth to the Kings in 15 games last season. “Last year, they gave me a pretty good shot and I didn’t do too much with it,” Phair said.

An understatement. In those 15 games, the left wing left behind one assist and two penalty minutes as his NHL legacy.

He was called up from the Kings’ minor league team Monday. Now, Phair is working on a new legacy.

Grant Ledyard’s power-play goal ended the scoring in the first period, then the second-period burst began at 2:08 when Nicholls got his 22nd goal of the season to give the Kings a 5-2 lead. Two minutes later, Winnipeg’s Brad Berry got his second goal of the season, both against the Kings.

The Kings began to bury the Jets after that. Marcel Dionne won a faceoff in the Jet zone, and Luc Robitaille got the puck and scored on a backhander at 9:42.

It was then that Winnipeg Coach Dan Maloney called for his goaltender, who had 15 saves on 21 shots, to spend the rest of the game on the bench. Reddick, a rookie, said he played “really bad.”

The relief assignment went to Steve Penney, who at 10:28 allowed a goal to Carson on the first shot he faced.

Later came a moment for Carson to show his brilliance. The rookie took the puck from his own zone and stickhandled, juked and faked a host of Jets. His fake on Penney resulted in a goal, at 14:56, that gave the Kings an 8-3 lead.

“It was the kind of goal I dreamed of as a kid, “ Carson said, referring to the not-so-distant past.