Neufeld’s Hat Trick Caps Off Kings’ Off Night : Winnipeg Kills Seven of Eight Penalties in Its Fourth Straight Victory, 5-2

The Kings on Wednesday night will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Forum, which they christened on Dec. 30, 1967, with a 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers.

Not much has changed since.

The Kings are still losing.

Monday night, they lost to the Jets, 5-2, as Winnipeg’s Ray Neufeld had three goals before a crowd of 9,917 at the Forum.

It was Neufeld’s third career hat trick, including two at the Forum.

The Kings still have won consecutive games only once this season. They followed one of their most determined performances of the season, a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks, with one that was almost equally lackluster, especially in the last two periods.

“We stopped doing the things we were successful with early,” King Coach Robbie Ftorek said. “We weren’t working together, and there were breakdowns. It’s a frustrating situation. I’m not happy with the game tonight.”

Why didn’t the Kings play with more defensive intensity?

“The answer to that question is: I’m not sure,” Ftorek said.

Winnipeg, which killed seven of eight penalties, has won four straight games and is unbeaten in its last five.

“It seemed like a few breaks opened the game up,” Neufeld said. “We capitalized on our chances.”

After a scoreless first period in which they were outshot, 11-6, the Jets opened a 2-0 lead midway through the second period, getting both goals from Neufeld in a 40-second span.

With 12:28 left in the period, Gilles Hamel intercepted a clearing pass from defenseman Jay Wells of the Kings above the left circle and made a centering pass to Neufeld, who lifted a 10-foot shot over goaltender Rollie Melanson.

“We like to get in on their defensemen, get them to cough the puck up and get some scoring opportunities,” Neufeld said. “Tonight, it worked for us.”

After taking a flip pass from Laurie Boschman, who was tied up at the blue line, Neufeld scored again on a 35-foot slap shot from the top of the slot.

Bernie Nicholls, who hadn’t scored a goal in the Kings’ previous five games, cut the Winnipeg lead to 2-1 with 10:51 left in the period, re-directing a pass from defenseman Ken Hammond.

It was a spectacular goal, with Nicholls, facing the opposite net, catching Winnipeg goaltender Daniel Berthiaume totally unaware with the backhanded shot from the right circle.

But the Kings, who were outshot in the period, 18-8, gave up two goals in the last 2:42 to fall behind, 4-1, entering the final period.

“We played a really bad 12 or 13 minutes,” Melanson said. “We played a pretty good first period, and the third period was not bad. But we have those breakdowns.”

The Kings had not given up a power-play goal in their previous two games and had killed 13 straight penalties, but with Tom Laidlaw off for holding and Bob Carpenter off for high sticking, Winnipeg broke the streak during a two-player advantage near the end of the period.

Paul MacLean took the rebound of an errant shot by Randy Carlyle off the backboard and tucked it into the lower left corner of the net, giving the Jets a 3-1 lead at 17:18.

With 10 seconds left in the period, Thomas Steen took the puck outside the Kings’ blue line, skated between Paul Guay and Larry Playfair of the Kings and faked Melanson onto his back.

With Melanson sprawled on the ice, Steen scored easily, sliding the puck into the open net to make it 4-1.

“No matter whether you’re the L.A. Kings or the Montreal Canadiens, playing catch-up hockey is tough,” Winnipeg Coach Dan Maloney said.

The Kings didn’t cut the lead until Mike Allison scored a power-play goal to make it 4-2 with 10:14 left.

Neufeld scored his third goal with 49 seconds left.

As Melanson was leaving the ice, Neufeld streaked toward the net. Melanson beat him there, but Neufeld still was able to slip the puck past the scrambling goaltender.

King Notes

The Kings are 0-20-2 in games that have trailed after the first two periods. . . . The Kings have only 7 goals in their last 57 power plays. . . . Bob Carpenter had to be helped off the ice in the first period and was later diagnosed as having suffered a mild concussion, but he returned for the second period. . . . In his previous nine games, Bernie Nicholls had one goal and two assists.