Kings, Lacking Punch, Knocked Out by Canucks

The Kings put a big finish on a fizzle of a game Thursday night at the Forum, but it was too little too late.

The Vancouver Canucks went away with the 6-3 victory on a weird night in the National Hockey League, a night on which every visiting team won.

And the Kings’ fans deserved better. A sellout crowd of 16,005 packed the Forum. It was the ninth sellout of the season, setting a club record.

While most of the Kings resorted to long showers, Wayne Gretzky alone emerged to try to explain the lack of dazzle in the team’s consecutive losses, the first time it has occurred at home this season.

“Maybe we’ve been on a little bit of a roll, on a little bit of a high, and now that’s over,” Gretzky said. “And Vancouver played well against us. We haven’t been playing well. The only way to get out of it is to work harder . . .

“At this point in time I think we’re going through one of those things that every team goes through. It’s our turn, I guess.”

Coach Robbie Ftorek analyzed the difference between his Kings and the Canucks Thursday night right down to the basics: “They played 60 minutes. They played hard. They had two men on the puck all the time. They outplayed us in the corner.

“If you don’t play hard in the corner every time, you don’t end up with the puck, and you don’t score.”

It’s as simple as that.

And although Ftorek seemed to be saying his Kings showed a lack of effort, he added: “I don’t think it was that our players didn’t try, or didn’t feel like they were playing hard. The other team was more ready.

“Our players worked hard for what they had gotten their minds set to do, but the preparation wasn’t enough.”

Vancouver Coach Bob McCammon credited a defensive change on Gretzky for contributing to the victory. Even though Gretzky had 1 goal and 2 assists, McCammon said: “Usually we pick him up. Tonight, we let him roam and we just were conscious of him when he was out there. Sometimes, it takes away from your offense when you worry about him too much, but if he and (Bernie) Nicholls aren’t going, they’re just another hockey team. I thought they both worked hard, but the bounce wasn’t bouncing for them.”

The Kings came to life in the final minutes, and when they did, the fans really supported them. After all, they’d had precious little to cheer about.

As the Kings sought to come back in the final stages of the third period, Steve Duchesne put in the rebound of a shot by Bernie Nicholls at 10:37 on a power play--giving the Kings one conversion on 5 power-play attempts for the night.

But that was it for the Kings’ scoring. They were shut out the rest of the way by Vancouver goalie Steve Weeks, even though they had picked up the pace and took 18 shots in the final period.

King goalie Glenn Healy gave up 5 goals and faced 35 shots before Ftorek pulled him with 1:15 left.

The Kings were down, 5-3, when Ftorek opted for an extra attacker. But Jim Sandlak scored his second goal of the night on the empty net to give the Canucks their 3-goal margin.

Gretzky pointed out that with Calgary’s loss to Montreal Thursday night, a victory would have put the Kings within 2 points of the lead in the Smythe Division. “This was a game that meant a lot to us,” he said.

Gretzky had a couple of stitches on the left side of his chin, where he had been hit with the puck. How fitting. Like the rest of the Kings, he took it on the chin.

The Kings (24-14-1), the league’s highest-scoring team, have been a little off their game in the last couple of outings. They just haven’t been able to score.

When Luc Robitaille scored the first goal for the Kings off a pass from Bob Carpenter at 12:03 of the first period, it had been more than 60 minutes of playing time since they had scored their final goal against Montreal Tuesday night.

Stan Smyl tied the score for Vancouver at 16:13 after Dale DeGray missed a pass that was run down in the Kings’ zone by the Canucks’ Steve Bozek. In the quick transition, the Canucks ended up with an extra attacker in the Kings’ zone, and Smyl beat Healy down low with the tying goal.

In the second period, three quick passes put the puck on Gretzky’s stick just to the right of the goal, and he put it past Weeks. Defenseman Steve Duchesne had made the first pass, from the top of the left circle to defenseman Marty McSorley at the top of the right circle. McSorley fired it to Nicholls, in the left circle, and Nicholls fired it across the crease to Gretzky at 4 minutes of the second period.

Just 29 seconds later it was tied again when Sandlak skated down the right side and beat Healy on the stick side with a 30-footer.

That was the first of the Canucks’ four straight goals.

The Canucks took the lead at 8:18 of the second period when Petr Skriko skated across the blue line, nice and easy, then picked up speed and zipped a shot past Healy.

It was only 18 seconds into the third period that rookie Trevor Linden scored on the power play, putting a rebound of a shot by Robert Nordmark high into the Kings’ net. And at 6:56, Tony Tanti scored the Canucks’ fourth straight goal on a 30-footer that ended up in the upper right-hand corner of the Kings’ net.

King Notes

The sellout Thursday night was the ninth in 21 home games, breaking the record of 8 sellouts during the 1984-85 season. It was the first time Vancouver has ever drawn a sellout crowd to the Forum. When the Kings got their eighth sellout in 1985, Wayne Gretzky helped to draw that crowd, too. It was a game against Edmonton. . . . The Kings are 2-2 against Vancouver, with 4 series games left in the regular season. . . . The Kings will play an exhibition game at 7 p.m. Saturday against Dynamo Riga, a Soviet team. Tickets are still available.