Flames Put Real Heat on Kings : After Losing, 7-3, L.A. Is Within One Game of Elimination

Given room to maneuver Sunday night, the Calgary Flames’ Big Red Machine devoured the Kings.

The explosive Flames, who squandered a three-goal lead at one point, had more than enough firepower to recover for a 7-3 victory in Game 4 of a Smythe Division semifinal playoff series at the Forum.

A crowd of 13,850 saw the Flames take a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, which the Flames can end with another victory Tuesday night at Calgary.

Hakan Loob scored three goals for the Flames, who didn’t face anywhere near the defensive intensity they encountered Saturday night, when the Kings’ clutch-and-grab tactics resulted in a 5-2 win.

The emotional nature of that victory may have drained the Kings, physically and mentally, Coach Robbie Ftorek and several players suggested.

“We were decent,” said the Kings’ Jimmy Carson, “but decent isn’t even close to being good enough to beat a team as powerful as the Flames.”

Ftorek said the Kings looked fatigued.

“We weren’t skating like we should have,” he said.

The Flames, who have scored 24 goals in the series, jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first 10 minutes 50 seconds.

Loob scored a short-handed goal at 1:29 after Steve Duchesne of the Kings mishandled a pass from Bernie Nicholls.

Loob picked up the puck and fed it to Perry Berezan, who carried it down the left side on a 3-on-1 breakaway, with only Duchesne back for the Kings. Berezan made a centering pass to Gary Suter, who then sent the puck to Loob in the right circle. Loob scored on a 15-foot shot.

Brad McCrimmon made it 2-0 at 4:46, scoring a power-play goal with Dean Kennedy in the penalty box for holding Lanny McDonald.

A centering pass from Paul Reinhart made its way through the slot untouched when Joel Otto collided with Jay Wells of the Kings, knocking both players to the ice. After the puck caromed off the left-wing boards, Brad McCrimmon jumped on it in the left circle and scored on a 30-foot shot.

At 10:50, Gary Roberts led a 2-on-1 breakaway for the Flames, carrying the puck down the right side. When defenseman Tom Laidlaw stayed in the middle, Roberts made a nice move around goaltender Glenn Healy and tucked the puck into the lower right corner of the net.

Healy said part of the Kings’ problem was that they didn’t initiate the action, as they had Saturday night.

“If you’re not forechecking and not creating things offensively, you’re chasing the puck all night,” he said. “And when you’re chasing a team like Calgary, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Still, the Kings rallied from the 3-0 deficit, scoring twice in a 57-second span, though it took about 10 minutes to play the 57 seconds.

Dave Taylor, in front of the net with his back to the goalmouth, reached out and swept a loose puck into the net, cutting the Kings’ deficit to 3-1 at 12:13 of the first period.

Only 26 seconds later, an altercation in front of the Calgary net resulted in nine penalties, with the Kings at first believed to have come out the worse for it when it was announced that Wells and Larry Playfair had been ejected.

Only a few seconds later, though, public-address announcer Dennis Packer announced that referee Dan Marouelli had changed his mind. Instead of a game misconduct, Wells was given a 10-minute misconduct. Playfair’s sentence was reduced to a minor roughing penalty.

Then, after everything had been sorted out, the Kings had a power play.

Luc Robitaille scored 31 seconds into the manpower advantage, re-directing a shot by Nicholls at 13:10.

Duchesne pulled the Kings even at 8:12 of the second period, jumping on a rebound of a shot by Paul Fenton in the left circle and firing a 25-foot shot past goaltender Mike Vernon.

The Flames, though, regained the lead at 14:35 after a clearing pass by Wells got caught up behind the Kings’ net. Tim Hunter picked up the loose puck, brought it around to the left side and banged a shot off Healy’s skate and off the inside of the right post.

Loob called it “probably the biggest goal of the series.”

Said Wells: “They (the Flames) really came at us. They forced us into making mistakes and giving up the puck.”

Loob, who scored twice in the Flames’ 9-2 victory in Game 1, gave the Flames a 5-3 lead at 16:05 when he took a pass in the left circle from Jim Peplinski and wristed a 10-foot shot through Healy’s legs.

“We seemed to let down there a little bit,” Healy said. “Against a team like that, it can cost you.”

The two goals enabled the Flames to take control.

“We lulled a little bit and didn’t recover from it,” Ftorek said.

King Notes

Joe Mullen, who hadn’t missed a game all season, sat out with a bruised right knee. Mullen, the Flames’ No. 5 scorer in the regular season with 84 points, was injured Saturday night in a fight with Jay Wells. . . . Mike Bullard, who missed four games with a charley horse in his left leg, returned to the Flames’ lineup for the first time since he was injured April 1 in a collision with Bernie Nicholls of the Kings. . . . Ron Duguay, acquired by the Kings in the February trade that sent defenseman Mark Hardy to the New York Rangers, has been scratched from the last three games. . . . Finishing first in the National Hockey League overall standings was worth $200,000 to the Flames, to be split evenly between management and the players. According to the NHL Official Guide and Record Book, only those players who played in all 80 regular-season games--in the Flames’ case, Mullen, Hakan Loob, Al MacInnis and Brad McCrimmon--will receive full shares of $5,000. Those who played in fewer games will receive pro-rated shares. . . . Not since 1971, when the Boston Bruins were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens, has the team with the best record in the overall standings been bounced from the playoffs in the first round.