STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Bad News for Kings: Flames Too Good

Well, we’ve got bad news and we’ve got bad news. The Kings got beat. And they looked bad doing it.

Oh, the Not Ready for Prime Ticket players did stage a comeback Saturday night, after two terrible periods of hockey, before succumbing to the Calgary Flames, 5-2, in Game 3 of their all-over-but-the-shouting Smythe Division playoff series.

There will be another game played here Monday night, and we suppose you could ask the old Al Michaels hockey question: “Do you believe in miracles?” We would like to think that the Kings think they still have a chance.

Face it, though, friends. It’s time to wait till next year. Calgary is just too good, and that’s just too bad for Los Angeles. It doesn’t mean that the Kings haven’t done their best. It just means that their best just isn’t good enough.

“They’re on Death Row,” Calgary Coach Terry Crisp said. “They’ve got nothing left to lose.

“The Kings will probably throw everything they’ve got at us Monday, but I don’t know what more there is for them to try. They’ve tried to muscle us. They’ve tried to finesse us. (Wayne) Gretzky has logged 50 minutes a night. (Bernie) Nicholls has, too. What else can they do that they haven’t done?”

All you have to do is watch the Kings on a power play, dumping the puck into the Flames’ end instead of carrying it in, because whenever anybody in an L.A. uniform approaches the blue line, some Flame is right in his face. There were several times Saturday when Calgary could have played an entire period short-handed and probably done all right.

Seeing as how the Flames haven’t lost four games in a row all season, we choose not to believe in miracles. But we thank the Kings for a nice try and are prepared to eat a puck if they come back and win this thing.

In their 90th game of the season, the Kings tried to emphasize why they changed their colors to black and silver. They came out playing like the Raiders. Steve Duchesne decked Joe Mullen, Dean Kennedy sent Brian MacLellan into the glass and Ken Baumgartner put down Lanny McDonald, all in the first few minutes. They might as well have worn skulls and crossbones on their helmets.

Then, late in the first period, Baumgartner came charging at Mullen like a runaway rhino. Picking on somebody nowhere near his own size, Baumgartner used his three-inch, 25-pound advantage to flatten Mullen with folded forearms, thrusting them into Mullen’s jaw. Calgary’s All-Star right wing--who scored 14 goals in eight games against the Kings this season--had to be helped to the dressing room and was not quick to return.

“It was definitely an elbow. You can see that in the replay,” Mullen said later.

A deliberate attempt to injure him?

“You seen it,” Mullen said.

By this time, though, the Flames already were in front by two goals, the only goals of the first two relatively uneventful periods. Calgary’s relentless defense kept the Kings looking as though they had forgotten to carry their sticks from the bench. Los Angeles got off only one shot in the last 13 minutes of the first period, and only seven shots in 33 minutes as the second period came to an end.

They needed some help.

They needed some luck.

They needed somebody to do something.

They needed divine intervention.

Paging Mr. Gretzky . . . paging Mr. Gretzky . . . please call your office.

Finally getting into the act, after a quiet couple of periods, the Great Western Gretzky helped put his team back in the ballgame, as it were. He made a snazzy pass to Tom Laidlaw, putting it right on his stick, and the King defenseman knew what to do with it. He might not have scored a goal from Jan. 24 to April 9, but Laidlaw slipped the puck past Mike Vernon 47 seconds into the final period.

The Kings were alive, if not well. A slapshot here, a tip-in there, any sort of score would bring them even. The breaks had not been going their way--Bernie Nicholls hit the left post midway through the second period, and the puck slid right under the Calgary goalie, who was flat on his back--but maybe, just maybe, their luck would change.

It did. It got worse.

Clank. A shot by John Tonelli off the post. Clank. A shot by Gretzky off the post. For close to 15 minutes of the third period, the Kings could not have played much better or tried much harder. Kelly Hrudey made one good save after another. All Los Angeles needed was to light that lamp.

Doug Gilmour did it instead. He gave Calgary a 3-1 lead. Things looked bad. Then Steve Kasper answered for the Kings, scrambling and scratching in front of the net, poking it in, making it 3-2. There was still time.

Time for Gilmour again.

This guy has been a pain in L.A.’s side all series long. He missed much of the end of the regular season with an abscessed jaw, but you would never know it by the way he is playing now. Artist Gilmour made two pretty goals when they counted most, beating Hrudey with a nice move that made the score 4-2, and shot an arrow through the Kings’ hearts.

Mullen, of all people, sent the fans to the Forum exits. He got even with Baumgartner in the best way possible, scoring to make it 5-2, to put the game in the bag, and probably put Los Angeles down and out near Beverly Hills.