Canucks’ Home Streak Is Now Eight Against Kings

A freak storm Tuesday dumped about five inches of snow on this picturesque coastal city, which usually experiences a milder climate.

Nothing so out of the ordinary took place Tuesday night inside the Pacific Coliseum, where the Vancouver Canucks defeated the Kings, 5-2, before a crowd of 6,959.

The Canucks, ending a six-game losing streak, extended their home unbeaten streak over the Kings to eight games.

The Kings, who meet the Canucks again tonight at the Forum, are 0-6-2 here since winning on Jan. 17, 1986.

They are 0-2 at the Pacific Coliseum under Coach Robbie Ftorek, who seemed miffed about the latest loss.

“I don’t think we played very well,” a tight-lipped Ftorek said.

What was it he didn’t like?

“Performance,” he said. “I don’t think we followed through with our game plan, and when you don’t do that and you’re sort of ad-libbing, you’re not very successful.”

The Kings scored both of their goals while short-handed.

Did Ftorek see anything he liked in the loss, which dropped the Kings back into a tie with the Canucks for last place in the Smythe Division?

“Not very much,” he said. “I thought (our) penalty killing was excellent. But other than that, I didn’t see a heck of a lot I enjoyed.”

The Canucks, who hadn’t won since Jan. 17 as the Kings made up eight points in the standings, scored three times in the last 4 minutes 5 seconds of the first period, opening a 3-1 lead.

The Kings had gone ahead with 13:47 left in the period, getting a short-handed goal from Bernie Nicholls.

With Luc Robitaille in the penalty box for high-sticking Rich Sutter, Bob Bourne stripped the puck from Vancouver’s Tony Tanti at the Canucks’ blue line, passing it to teammate Jay Wells in the Kings’ zone.

Wells, spotting Nicholls behind the play, flipped the puck up the ice, where Nicholls took it and skated in alone, beating goaltender Kirk McLean.

The Canucks tied it on a goal by Craig Coxe, who scored on a rebound.

A shot from the right circle was stopped by goaltender Rollie Melanson, but Melanson failed to glove the shot and inadvertently kicked the puck in front to Coxe, who lifted it into the unprotected net.

The Canucks scored on a similar play with 1:26 left in the period.

Melanson again stopped a shot from the right circle, and again couldn’t hang on to the puck, fumbling it in front to Stan Smyl, whose shot gave the Canucks a 2-1 lead.

A frustrated Melanson, who had stopped 39 shots last Saturday night in a 5-0 victory over the Minnesota North Stars, slammed his stick to the ice.

Then, with four seconds left in the period, Barry Pederson scored on a deflection of a sharp-angle shot by Sutter as he was knocked to the ice by King defenseman Jay Wells.

Pederson’s deflection, which originated from just outside the crease on the left side, caromed off the inside of the right post and into the net.

The Canucks’ power-play unit, which has had enough problems producing goals, was burned again in the second period after Bob Carpenter of the Kings was assessed a double minor for slashing Tanti and for unsportsmanlike conduct.

Mike Allison took a rebound just outside the crease on the left side and back-handed a shot through McLean’s legs, scoring a short-handed goal that cut the Kings’ deficit to 3-2 with 2:57 left in the period.

With 1:56 left in the period, Pederson had to be carried from the ice on a stretcher after being blind-sided into the boards by Nicholls, whose check snapped Pederson’s neck, slamming his head into the plexiglass.

“I was coming full speed,” Nicholls said. “It wasn’t a dirty check. I wasn’t trying to hurt him.”

Tanti hurt the Kings at 2:19 of the third period, stealing the puck outside the Kings’ blue line from Grant Ledyard and scoring unassisted on a breakaway, giving the Canucks a 4-2 lead.

Dave Richter added an empty-net goal for the Canucks with 1:02 left, taking the puck behind the Canucks’ net and ricocheting a shot off the boards and into the net at the opposite end of the ice, about 185 feet away.

King Notes

The Kings are 0-26-2 in games in which they’ve trailed at the end of the second period. . . . Vancouver’s Barry Pederson, who was taken off the ice on a stretcher after being blind-sided by Bernie Nicholls in the second period, was diagnosed as having a mild concussion. Pederson, the Canucks’ No. 3 scorer, missed three games in December with a whiplash injury after rear-ending a truck while driving to a game at the Pacific Coliseum. . . . Nicholls’ short-handed goal in the first period was his seventh of the season, extending his club record.