Kings Are Routed, 9-3, by Flames, and Lose McSorley After a Brawl

Rollie Melanson was brought in from New Haven on emergency recall, just in case the Kings needed a backup goalie Saturday night.

The Kings needed him, all right. They needed something.

But by the time Melanson hit the ice in relief of Glenn Healy with 6 minutes 3 seconds left in the second period, the Kings were already down by four goals, 6-2, in a game they eventually lost to the Calgary Flames, 9-3, before a crowd of 16,005 at the Forum.

Melanson did a little bit of everything to help out. In addition to minding the nets, he also left the crease to take on the Flames’ Tim Hunter after Hunter blind-sided Marty McSorley during one of the larger brawls of the season.

The fight resulted in the eviction of McSorley, Tim Watters and Igor Liba of the Kings, and Hunter and Gary Roberts of the Flames.

The crowd loved it when Melanson joined in, chanting, “Roll-ie, Roll-ie,” when he went to McSorley’s defense.

The gesture cost Melanson a 2-minute penalty for leaving the crease, but that was nothing compared to what the fracas cost McSorley.

McSorley, who twice wrestled officials to the ice along with his opponents, just would not give up the battle. When they finally had him off the ice, they assessed him a 5-minute fighting penalty, a 10-minute misconduct penalty and a double game misconduct.

The rare double game misconduct call gave McSorley his third and fourth game misconducts of the season, meaning he will have to sit out at least the next two games. Perhaps three. King officials were planning to check with the National Hockey League Monday for an interpretation of the rule.

By the letter of the law, it would be three games because the third misconduct results in a one-game suspension, and each subsequent misconduct doubles the previous suspension. The Kings will argue that it was just one incident, not a repeat offense after a suspension.

Whatever the ruling, it was not good timing on McSorley’s part. The Kings’ next two games are at Edmonton and Calgary, key games as the season winds down with a series of Smythe Division matchups that will decide whether the Kings or Edmonton have home ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

Right now, the Kings have the best shot at it, with a record of 37-29-6 and a two-point lead over Edmonton with seven games left in the regular season. Edmonton has only five games left.

And the winner of that No. 2 vs. No. 3 bracket will move on to play the winner of the No. 1 vs. No. 4 bracket.

Calgary, with a record of 48-16-9, long ago clinched the No. 1 spot.

Considering Calgary’s 5-2 record against the Kings this season, it won’t be easy to get out of the division.

The fights that resulted in a long, drawn-out third period gave a clue to the level of intensity between the teams.

Jim Peplinski of the Flames said: “We know that Los Angeles is a very explosive team. They are what I consider to be a very, very good team, whether we play them here on in Calgary. We’ve got that respect for them, and I think that ends up with the good attitude and good concentration.”

Melanson had blanked the Flames until the biggest brawl broke out at 8:03. After the fight, and after a long list of ejections, the game was something of a free-for-all.

Mark Hunter got his hat-trick goal on Melanson at 14:01. Lanny McDonald added another goal for the Flames, and Dave Taylor added a goal for the Kings in the final minutes.

“It would have been nice to blank them all the way,” Melanson said. “When you go into a game like that, you just want to try to keep the score down. . . . After a 9-3 game, what can I say?”

Asked if he had been bothered by the fans’ chanting for Melanson, Healy said: “I guess we’re bigtime winners now. We have fickle fans.”

Healy added: “As a player, I have to understand that the fans want us to win. They come to cheer, yell, jeer, boo. I just try to block it out.

“Hopefully, we’ll put this behind us and get on with the business at hand. If we win the next time out, everyone will forget this one.”

It was a truly forgettable game.

McSorley won’t be forgetting it too soon, though, as he sits home through the trip next week to Edmonton (his home of the past few years with the Oilers) and Calgary.

King Notes

Rollie Melanson was called up for this game because Kelly Hrudey, the goalie obtained from the New York Islanders just before the trading deadline, had gone home for the birth of his second child. . . . Individual game playoff tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m. today at the Forum. Strip tickets (sets of tickets for all first-round playoff games) are already on sale. If the Kings win the home-ice advantage, their first games at the Forum will be Wednesday, April 5, and Thursday, April 6. If they do not get the advantage, their first home games will be Saturday, April 8, and Sunday, April 9.