Kings Left Standing After Shootout : Fitzpatrick Fills In as L.A. Beats Stubborn North Stars, 8-6

When Glenn Healy gave up 3 goals on the first 3 shots he faced, it was time to think about going to the bullpen. By the end of the first period, he had given up 5 goals, and it was time for him to call it a day.

But--strange but true--the game was not lost. Not with the rookie goalie the Kings had standing by. Not with the Minnesota North Stars having the same kind of trouble. Not with the way the Kings score goals.

The Kings came back to beat the North Stars, 8-6, before 13,125 at the Forum Wednesday night.

The first few minutes flashed past in a blur of goals, but things settled down a little after that. Mark Fitzpatrick came in to relieve Healy at the start of the second period, and he shut the North Stars out until he gave up a meaningless goal in the final minute.

“We have the best offense in the league, and I knew it was just a matter of time until we got some of those goals back,” Fitzpatrick said.

Winger Dave Taylor added: “In the first period, we dug ourselves a hole. We just didn’t play well. . . . Fitzpatrick came in and played well in relief.”

When Fitzpatrick took over, the Kings were down by 2. Call it “just 2” when talking about the Kings.

Minnesota goalie Jon Casey gave up 3 goals in the first period but settled down for a while. He wasn’t relieved until the third period, after John Tonelli’s second goal had given the Kings a 6-5 lead.

Jarmo Myllys, a Finnish goalie who was recalled from Kalamazoo (Mich.) on Tuesday when Kari Takko came down with a virus, had to finish up.

Dale DeGray and Doug Crossman added goals against Myllys, running the Kings’ lead to 8-5 before Marc Habscheid scored against Fitzpatrick with just 33 seconds left in the game.

The Kings won both games on this home stand to improve to 23-12-1, and the North Stars fell to 10-18-6.

Brian Bellows got the North Stars started just 27 seconds into the game, and a little over a minute later, Dino Ciccarelli made it 2-0 when he deflected in a long wrist shot by Curt Giles.

But the Kings quickly struck back. Tonelli slipped behind Ciccarelli and put the puck high into the upper right corner of the goal at 2:06, and Wayne Gretzky centered the puck from behind the net on a shot that glanced off Casey’s skate and behind the line at 3:08.

That’s 4 goals in less than 4 minutes. But they weren’t finished. Ciccarelli’s shot at 5:18 went off Healy’s glove for a 3-2 Minnesota lead.

Bernie Nicholls pulled the Kings even again at 7:51, putting in the puck off a pass from Luc Robitaille after Robitaille had fought his way down the ice.

But the Kings continued to play the game in the wrong end, and that caught up with them. North Star center Neal Broten was handling the puck behind the King net, keeping all eyes on him, when Habscheid moved into the slot, took the quick pass from Broten and put it past Healy at 14:40.

A couple of minutes later, a shot by Bellows went off the stick of Dave Gagner, and Healy made the stop but lost track of the puck. While Healy was trying to locate it, Gagner swept it into the right corner for a 5-3 Minnesota lead.

Healy had faced 13 shots when he was relieved. In the second period, Fitzpatrick faced only 6 as he shut out the North Stars and the Kings came back with a team-effort goal. Nicholls pushed the puck toward the goal as he was knocked down, and when Casey made the stop, Robitaille kept the play alive by kicking the puck toward Taylor, who passed back to Robitaille for the shot that made it into the net at 14:29.

Taylor scored the tying goal at 19:49 on a power play. He started the attack, passing across the ice to Nicholls, who fired a pass right back to Taylor. He took a shot that bounced out to Robitaille, who also poked it toward the goal. But it was Taylor who fought through the crowd in front of the net to finish the play.

King Coach Robbie Ftorek, who doesn’t like to have to pull a goalie, has done it twice in the last few weeks. He pulled Healy in a game against Winnipeg at the Forum Dec. 8 that ended in a 5-5 tie.

Coming in cold like that is new to Fitzpatrick, but he says he’s getting used to it.

“It’s a challenge. When Heals gave up those 3 goals, I started thinking I was going to have to do it. At that point, you just think in terms of trying to help. I’m sure if the same thing happened to me, Heals would be right there for me.”

All of the Kings seemed to pick up the pace in the second period. Through the second period and the first 19:27 of the third, they scored 5 straight goals while Fitzpatrick held off the North Stars.

Minnesota Coach Pierre Page said: “Tonight was a big slap in the face. We knew L.A. was tired from the trip and from the game against Calgary. That was a very emotional game for them, but L.A. has shown a lot of character.”

King Notes

Mario Lemieux of Pittsburgh is leading Bernie Nicholls and Wayne Gretzky in the National Hockey League scoring race. Wednesday night, Lemieux had 3 goals and 2 assists to raise his point total to 91. Nicholls had 1 goal and 3 assists for a total of 81, and Gretzky had 1 goal for a total of 78. Nicholls needed that goal to maintain his lead in that category; he has 37 to Lemieux’s 36. . . . Dave Taylor’s assist on Luc Robitaille’s goal in the second period Wednesday night was the 900th point of Taylor’s NHL career. He added a goal later in the period. . . . Although the Kings rank only 13th in the league on power plays at 19.3%, they are pretty good at penalty killing (third in the league) and short-handed goals (11 so far, 1 short of the team season record). . . . The Kings will play the Canucks Friday night at Vancouver.