Marcel Dionne Attains Milestone, but Kings Win It Before 16,005

Thumbing through a hockey magazine Friday after practice, Jimmy Carson of the Kings happened upon an item that seemed to amuse him.

“Look at this,” he called out to a reporter, pointing to the text.

Reading from the end of a scouting report on the Kings, he said: “ . . . it becomes apparent that the Kings are going to score a ton of goals.”

He shook his head wistfully.

The Kings, of course, haven’t scored a ton of goals.

In fact, before a 5-4 victory over the New York Rangers Saturday night, they had scored fewer than any other team in the National Hockey League.

They established a season high against the struggling Rangers, ending a three-game losing streak before a sellout crowd of 16,005 at the Forum.

The capacity crowd was attracted in part, no doubt, by the return of Marcel Dionne, traded to the Rangers last March in his 12th season with the Kings.

Dionne didn’t disappoint, scoring two goals to run his career total to 704 and adding an assist, the 1,000 of his career.

“A vintage Dionne game,” Coach Mike Murphy of the Kings called it. “The kind of game you saw him play as a younger man.”

Dionne’s productivity wasn’t enough, however, to prevent the Rangers’ sixth straight loss. Since beating Philadelphia Oct. 24, the Rangers are 0-6-1, including two losses to the Kings. They’ve given up 36 goals in their last six games.

“I think we have hit bottom now,” Dionne said.

The Kings erased a 3-2 Ranger lead when they broke a 0 for 23 streak on the power play with goals by Bernie Nicholls and Paul Fenton just 18 seconds apart during a manpower advantage near the end of the second period.

“It’s been a sore spot for us,” Murphy said of the power play, “but tonight it came through at a good time. I think it picked everybody up. The players saw a little flicker of hope.

“You get into these ruts and you just can’t seem to get over the hill.”

Bryan Erickson gave the Kings a 1-0 lead with a driving shot from the slot just 1 minute 17 seconds into the game. Erickson, recalled Monday from New Haven, Conn., of the American Hockey League, took a pass from Tim Tookey and beat goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck.

The Rangers tied it with 4:06 left in the period on a shot from the left point by John Gronstrand.

Gronstrand’s shot appeared to deflect off Dionne, who initially was credited with the goal.

At the end of the period, however, Dionne told officials that the puck had not touched him. Dionne, who started the play with a pass to Gord Walker, was instead credited with an assist that enabled him to join Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky as the only players in NHL history with 1,000 or more assists.

When the scoring change was announced before the start of the second period, the crowd gave Dionne a standing ovation.

By that time, the Kings led, 2-1, on a goal by Jim Fox with 2:17 left in the first period. Jay Wells dug the puck out of a scramble along the left side, deflecting it to Bob Carpenter, who made a pretty centering pass to Fox.

A goal by Lucien DeBlois got the Rangers even 1:08 into the second period. They took a 3-2 lead at 7:31 on Dionne’s 10th goal.

Tomas Sandstrom chased the puck down in the corner on Dionne’s goal, knocking it into the air along the endboard, where Walt Poddubny batted it in front of the net to Dionne, who beat goaltender Rollie Melanson.

It was a power-play goal, Dionne’s seventh of the season.

At that point, the Kings had only 8 in 75 opportunities and were 0 for 23 since scoring a third-period power-play goal Oct. 27 at Pittsburgh.

In fact, they had gone four straight games without a power-play goal before scoring two after Ron Talakoski of the Rangers was given a five-minute boarding penalty for riding Jimmy Carson hard into the boards with 3:43 left in the second period.

Nicholls, who returned to the lineup Wednesday after missing 10 games with a broken finger, scored his 200th career goal and second in two games on a shot from the right point at 17:19, tying the game at 3-3.

At 17:37, Fenton took a pass from Erickson in front of the net and scored his third goal in six games, giving the Kings a 4-3 lead.

It stayed that way until Luc Robitaille scored on a breakaway, sliding a shot past Vanbiesbrouck to make it 5-3 with 14:51 remaining.

Dionne scored his second goal on a shot from the left circle, cutting the Ranger deficit to 5-4 with 9:25 left.

King Notes More than 4,000 tickets to the game were sold after 6 p.m. Saturday. The Kings’ previous high crowd was 10,748 for the opener last month against the New York Islanders. . . . Asked in New York after last week’s game against the Kings to reflect on the strangest aspect of facing his former teammates, Marcel Dionne laughed. “Those colors,” he said, referring to the Kings’ purple-and-gold uniforms. “I didn’t realize how bad they were.” Among those who also don’t like the Kings’ uniforms is co-owner Bruce McNall, who would like to take the Kings from out of the shadow of the Lakers, who also wear purple and gold. McNall said he would like to change the Kings’ colors next season. . . . When it was suggested to Dionne Friday that he is the most popular player in King history, Dionne referred to King General Manager Rogie Vachon when he said: “I’m not. He’s got his sweater up there.” Vachon, whose No. 30 hangs from a wall in the Forum, traded Dionne to the Rangers. . . . In 16 months as the Rangers’ general manager, Phil Esposito has made 23 trades. His latest sent Willie Huber and Larry Melnyk to Vancouver last Wednesday in exchange for Michel Petit. . . . It was the first time since a 5-4 victory over Edmonton on March 17, 1985, that the Kings had won before a capacity crowd at the Forum. They were 0-6 since. . . . Dionne, on his 1,000th assist: “I couldn’t care less about records.” . . . New York Coach Michel Bergeron disagreed with the five-minute boarding penalty against Ron Talakoski: “It was a good body check and a fair body check,” he said of the hit that resulted in a cut on Jimmy Carson’s chin.