STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Flames Move Closer to a Blowout : Calgary Takes 3-0 Series Lead With 5-2 Victory

After the way the Kings lost the third game of their best-of-seven Smythe Division playoff series Saturday night, getting bounced around to the tune that the Calgary Flames were calling, and finally losing, 5-2, to go down three games to none, there is not much reason to believe that they will make a comeback.

To continue this first season of the Wayne Gretzky era, the Kings would have to win four straight, and two of those games would be played in Calgary.

Sure, the Kings came back and won three straight to beat the Edmonton Oilers in the last series. But this is different.

A deserted locker room told the story of just how down the Kings were feeling Saturday night.

Gretzky made a brief appearance, and while he didn’t proclaim the Kings dead, he wasn’t making any promises, either.

Meanwhile, Calgary Coach Terry Crisp was playing it as cautiously as his team plays it on the ice. Crisp said: “There’s still no comfort zone. The fourth game is the toughest one to win, and we’ve got our hands full trying to get it.”

Crisp reminded everyone that the Kings led the league in offense--it was easy to forget that Saturday night--and that they were coming off an emotional series against Edmonton.

The sellout crowd of 16,005 welcomed the Kings back with rousing ovations that started to swell as Warren Wiebe sang the final lines of “America the Beautiful.”

Seemingly undaunted by the fact that the Kings had dropped the first two games of the series at Calgary, the Los Angeles crowd was ready to roar.

But their enthusiasm was soon squelched.

It was a very subdued crowd that watched the Kings leave the ice after the first period, trailing, 2-0.

As King defenseman Ken Baumgartner noted: “The fans were waiting for any kind of spark, and we couldn’t give it to them.”

There were some big moments for the Kings, but they were few.

Tom Laidlaw fired a pass from Gretzky past Flame goalie Mike Vernon just 47 seconds into the third period to pull the Kings within 2-1. And there were some exciting moments--when Bernie Nicholls hit the post in the second period while it was 2-0, when Gretzky bounced a shot off the post on a breakaway and when John Tonelli bounced a shot off the post while the Kings were still within a goal in the third period.

Yes, the league’s highest-scoring team has to take solace in shots that only come close.

While the Kings were still looking for a scrap of good news, thinking that they might just rally, Doug Gilmour, who scored the Game 1 winner in overtime and got two early goals in the Game 2 blowout, scored the first of his two goals, threading a shot between King Jay Miller and Flame Lanny McDonald, who were screening King goalie Kelly Hrudey.

At that point, Coach Robbie Ftorek of the Kings went back to the ploy that he had used at the end of Game 3, going with four forwards and just one defenseman--and it worked, for a while, as center Steve Kasper scored after center Nicholls had sent a pass to the front of the net for a shot by right wing Dave Taylor and the rebound goal by Kasper.

The only other Kings on the ice at the time were left wing Luc Robitaille and high-scoring defenseman Steve Duchesne.

That same line was on the ice, though, when Gilmour scored his second goal, breaking in on Hrudey at 16:27.

Ftorek went back to two defensemen after the Gilmour goal, and Mullen scored at 17:50 to make it 5-2.

Then, for more than a minute during the final, desperate moments of the game, as the Kings tried to make up three goals, Ftorek pulled Hrudey and attacked with five forwards and Duchesne.

Until the final seconds, that is, when he went after the Flames with tough guys Baumgartner, Marty McSorley and Miller.

Once again, frustration led to fisticuffs.

Earlier, Jim Peplinski, who had riled McSorley in the opening minutes by ripping his stick out of his hands and tossing it aside, had just put McSorley on his hands and knees and then on the bench with a high stick to the face when, unencumbered, he picked up a rebound and swooped behind the Kings’ net, from where he sent out the centering pass to defenseman Jamie Macoun for the goal that put the Flames ahead, 1-0.

Flame center Joel Otto made it 2-0 when he skated around King defenseman Jim Wiemer and banked a shot off the right post and over Hrudey, who had spread himself across the mouth of the goal as best he could. That was the fourth shot of the game for Mullen, who matched the Kings’ total shots in the first period.

Baumgartner made sure that Mullen didn’t get another shot soon by clipping him on the chin and sending him to the dressing room with 3:25 to play in the period. Mullen didn’t return until late in the third period, just in time to score the Flames’ final goal.

The Kings took just one shot in the final 13 minutes of the first period, and then only six shots in the second period. For the entire game, they had just 23 shots.

The Kings were not playing in the middle of the ice by choice. The Flames insisted that the game be played there as they employed an annoying game of bump and heckle.

But the Kings solved that with the only sure cure--a quick goal.

Just 42 seconds into the third period, Gretzky sent a pass from the left boards out to defenseman Laidlaw, who put the puck into the back of the net and brought the fans back to life.

Laidlaw’s goal gave the Kings a little glimmer of hope and led to a flurry of goals--but the Flames even had the edge in the flurry.

Duchesne said: “The Flames play very well. They forecheck so well. The team that wins is the team that controls the puck, and they controlled the puck.”

McSorley concluded: “We’ve got to take charge. . . . We’ve had bad starts before, but we can’t go out wanting not to make mistakes. Let’s up the tempo of the game and make them skate with us.

“We let them slow the game down. We can’t do that.”

Or this series will end Monday night.

King Notes

Game 4 will be played Monday night at the Forum at 7:30. . . . Wayne Gretzky needs one goal to become the NHL’s all-time leading playoff goal scorer with 86. He is tied with Mike Bossy at 85. . . . The Kings’ record for least shots in a playoff game is 14, set against Edmonton in 1987. . . . The Kings went into Saturday night’s game with six straight losses to the Flames, four in the regular season and two in the playoffs. The Kings have not beaten the Flames since Dec. 20.