Kings, Once Hot, Are Cooling Off in Midwest With Loss to Chicago, 5-2

A trip that started so promisingly has turned sour for the Kings, who lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-2, Sunday night before a crowd of 14,508 at Chicago Stadium.

That’s two straight losses on the heels of a four-game unbeaten streak.

“We didn’t show any intensity in Detroit,” Dean Kennedy said of Friday night’s 5-3 loss to the Red Wings, “and we didn’t show any tonight.”

Actually, the Kings overcame a 2-0 deficit, scoring twice in the first period before being shut out in the last 40 minutes 57 seconds by a defense that, among National Hockey League teams, is worse statistically than all but the Kings’ defense.

“We might be a little tired, but I think it’s a mental thing,” Kennedy said. “During the streak, everybody was flying, everybody was hitting, but now we’ve lost our momentum.

“The last two games, we’ve had a hard time getting a full team effort.”

The Blackhawks went ahead to stay with 4:34 left in the second period on the type of play that has become all too familiar to King followers.

Steve Duchesne, attempting to clear the puck out of the Kings’ zone, had his pass intercepted at center ice by Bob McGill, who passed to Denis Savard streaking down the left side.

McGill, who was on the right side, blew past Duchesne, took a return pass from Savard in front of the net and lifted the game-winning shot over King goaltender Rollie Melanson.

“Luc (Robitaille) had a breakaway and he was yelling at me, and I tried to make the pass, but the guy intercepted it,” Duchesne said of McGill.

Duchesne said he slipped as he made the pass, and that by the time he recovered, McGill was past him.

“I was dead,” he said.

So were the Kings.

The assist gave Savard points in his last 14 games. The National Hockey League’s No. 3 scorer added a third-period goal and, during his streak, has 11 goals and 15 assists.

By the time he scored during a two-man advantage with 6:15 left, the Blackhawks were already comfortably ahead on Dirk Graham’s second goal, which was scored on a freak play.

Melanson went behind the net to retrieve a pass from the left point by Everett Sanipass, only to have the puck roll along the top of the boards, hit a post and bounce past him.

The puck bounced between the Kings’ Mark Hardy and Mike Allison and headed straight toward Graham, who scored easily into the unprotected net.

“Ninety-nine percent of those flippers just drop and roll behind the net,” Melanson said of the pass by Sanipass. “It was just one of those things where we got a bad bounce.”

Indeed, Melanson could not rightfully be blamed on the play.

He could, however, be faulted for an errant clearing pass that led to Graham’s first goal, which gave the Blackhawks a 2-0 lead on only their second shot of the game.

Melanson chased down the puck in the right circle during a King power play and fired a hard pass that bounced past Bernie Nicholls and straight to Graham at the right point.

With Melanson hopelessly out of position, Graham scored easily from the Kings’ blue line as the goaltender dove in vain toward the empty net.

Melanson said he had been instructed by the coaching staff to fire the puck up the ice in that situation.

And Nicholls, he said, was looking at him as he made the pass.

“Graham kind of cheated on the line change,” Melanson said. “He wasn’t there when I first looked up. But, still, if the puck stays down and doesn’t jump over Bernie’s stick.

“That’s the whole idea of firing it up during a line change--you want to get a 3-on-2 or a 2-on-1.”

Instead, the Kings trailed, 2-0.

Goals by Allison, who scored on a redirection and now has 9 in 13 games with the Kings, and Jimmy Carson, who scored his 25th on a rebound of a shot by Allison, got them even with 57 seconds left in the first period.

They went down easily after that, but they didn’t go quietly.

King Notes

Is Coach Robbie Ftorek discouraged? “No,” he said. “Never.” . . . The Kings are 0-21-2 in games in which they’ve trailed at the end of two periods. . . . Chicago’s rookie goaltender, Darren Pang, stopped 20 shots in the last two periods and 33 overall to pick up the victory. . . . The Kings have allowed a league-high 204 goals. Chicago, which has given up more than any other NHL team, has allowed 178. . . . The Kings are 1-6-3 at Chicago in the last seven seasons and haven’t won in Chicago Stadium since Dec. 14, 1983.

Dino Ciccarelli is expected to play for the Minnesota North Stars tonight when the Kings end their five-game trip at Bloomington, Minn. Ciccarelli, who leads the North Stars with 56 points, drew a 10-game suspension from the National Hockey League for a stick-swinging incident in a game last Wednesday at Toronto, but the suspension doesn’t go into effect until Friday. Ciccarelli used his stick to hit Toronto’s Luke Richardson on the head several times. Richardson was not injured. . . . Minnesota is 6-14-1 in the Met Center, the worst home record in the NHL. The Kings’ road record is 5-16-3.

Jim Fox was scratched for the first time this season because of the flu. Fox, who had points in six of the Kings’ previous seven games, said he experienced dizzy spells after Friday night’s game at Detroit. . . . Dave Taylor will miss his 10th game tonight with what was originally diagnosed as a minor groin pull.