Kings, 38 Seconds From Victory, Lose in Overtime

The Kings were within 38 seconds of getting out of Boston Garden Thursday night with their first victory in more than eight years.

But, no - o-o-o .

After Boston Coach Mike Milbury had pulled goalie Reggie Lemelin to give the Bruins six attackers, young Rob Cimetta jumped on the rebound of a shot by Ray Bourque and scored to send the game into overtime.

And then 1:43 into the overtime, Bob Sweeney followed his own shot to beat King goalie Mario Gosselin for the game-winner in a 5-4 Boston victory in front of 14,448.

It was another in a series of heartbreakers for the Kings in this building, where their recent record is 0-13-1.

Sweeney had just won a face-off in the Kings’ end against former Bruin Steve Kasper, who was thrown off balance and fell, taking himself out of the play and leaving Sweeney free to fire away.

“I just got back on my heels and fell,” Kasper said. “It was just one of those things.”

One of those things that always seems to happen to the Kings when they play here.

Milbury was glad to see Sweeney score on that final break.

“He had lost the cover on the goal that gave them the 4-3 lead, and he was feeling pretty tough about that,” Milbury said. “Knowing he had lost us the hockey game, he wouldn’t have been able to sleep too well. . . . At least I hope he wouldn’t have been able to sleep too well.”

Sweeney admitted that he had let John Tonelli get away for what looked to be the Kings’ game-winner on a rare power-play goal at 9:24 of the third period. It was Tonelli’s second goal of the game and seemed to be the finishing touch on an impressive comeback effort.

Cam Neely had scored two goals to put Boston ahead, 2-0, after the first period. But the Kings rallied with a strong second period.

Defenseman Larry Robinson scored his first goal as a King at 19 seconds of the second period, a quick shot through the slot off a pass from Tonelli.

Tonelli tied the score at 1:03 of the second period. And Bob Kudelski--back on a line with former New Haven teammates Hubie McDonough and Craig Duncanson--put the Kings ahead at 9:22.

Bobby Carpenter, who scored the winning goal in the Bruins’ earlier victory over the Kings, tied the score, 3-3.

Tonelli, alone after losing Sweeney, was able to follow up his own shot after Lemelin had gone to his knees for the first save, putting the rebound in for the go-ahead goal.

The Kings managed to protect that lead for almost 10 minutes . . . but they needed to protect it for 10:36.

“I thought we did all the things we had to do to win, but we didn’t win it,” King Coach Tom Webster said. “We were so close. It’s so disappointing . . . to get so close and then lose a couple of face-offs.”

Kasper’s fallaway face-off was costly. But so was the face-off that Bernie Nicholls lost with 49 seconds to play in regulation, right after Lemelin was pulled off the ice.

Neely won the face-off, sending the puck back to Bourque, who fired a shot from just inside the blue line. McDonough lunged at the shot, and blocked it.

Back the puck went to Bourque, who fired it again into traffic. The puck bounced back to Bourque, who fired it again and got it to the net--where Gosselin made the save.

The rebound bounced to Cimetta, and in a flash, the score was tied.

“I was in the right place at the right time,” Cimetta said. “I waiting for Ray to get a good shot. Larry Robinson left me alone in front, and it was an open net for me.

“I just hit it as hard as I could.”

King Dave Taylor, who has been with the Kings for the long, frustrating series of disappointments in Boston Garden, dating back to the last victory on Jan. 24, 1981, could only shake his head.

“Hubie makes a nice play to block that shot and it goes right back to him,” Taylor said. “Nine times out of 10, that’s going to kick back out past the blue line. They work hard and then they get breaks like that.

“I thought we showed a good effort in the comeback tonight. In the second period, we played real well.

“Yeah, I guess you can say we’re kind of snake-bit here. I don’t know how many times it’s been close coming down to the last minute. We play well but we still leave the city with nothing to show for it.”

Wayne Gretzky echoed that, saying: “When you’re up by a goal with less than a minute to play, you should come out of it with at least a tie.”

Gretzky was held without a point for the fourth time this season.

Boston is always a tough team for Gretzky, who was held to only one shot on goal and not a point in the game the Kings lost to the Bruins earlier this month at the Forum.

And playing here is even tougher.

In 12 previous games at Boston Garden, Gretzky had only four goals and 11 assists. He was shut out three times.

Playing on the left side of Nicholls’ line Thursday night helped give him some room and allowed him to get off five pretty good shots. For what that was worth.

As Gretzky said: “The last game (at Pittsburgh) it seemed like everything I touched went in. Tonight, I could have had four or five points, but I hit a couple of goalposts.”

That’s the way it goes here.

The Bruins evened their record at 6-6-1, whereas the Kings evened their record at 7-7-0.

King Notes

Wayne Gretzky was named the NHL player of the month. . . . Mario Gosselin went into the game with a record of 1-1-0 and a goals-against average of 4.92. Figuring into Coach Tom Webster’s decision to use Gosselin against the Bruins was the success he used to have against Boston when he played for Quebec, another Adams Division team. . . . Reggie Lemelin was 1-3-0 with a goals-against average of 2.57. Andy Moog wasn’t in goal for the Bruins in their victory over the Kings earlier this month. . . . Larry Robinson’s goal Thursday night gave him the point that tied him with Brad Parks for the No. 3 spot on the all-time scoring list for defensemen. . . .

Rumors of a trade that would send Penguin defenseman Paul Coffey and forward Rob Brown to Los Angeles for defenseman Steve Duchesne and Luc Robitaille have been denied by officials of both the Kings and the Penguins. The rumors were fueled by the fact that Wayne Gretzky, who played with Coffey in Edmonton, was seen talking at length with his friend before the game at Pittsburgh Tuesday night. King owner Bruce McNall said: “Rogie (Vachon) and I talked with (Tony) Esposito the other night in Pittsburgh, just being cordial, and there wasn’t even anything mentioned about such a trade.”

Rob Cimetta, who scored the tying goal for Boston, walked down the hall to shake hands with Webster after the game. Cimetta played for Webster on the Canadian national junior team that competed in the world tournament at Anchorage. . . . The Kings were especially irate when, early in the overtime period Thursday night, a beach ball being volleyed about in the stands floated onto the ice, stopping play. The Kings had control of the puck at the time, and were about to carry it out of their end when the ball landed beside their net. The officials got rid of the ball, and then put the face-off to restart play in the face-off circle to Gosselin’s left. The Kings argued that they should not be penalized for what the Bruin fans had done. “That was a brutal call,” Webster said. “If that’s the case, we’ll be throwing beach balls in Los Angeles.”