Kings Find a Bright Spot in Calgary, 5-3

Their coach was missing from the bench with an ear injury.

Their goalie was missing from the lineup with a virus.

Their defense has missing for more than a month.

But the Kings are suddenly alive and getting well.

In Calgary, of all places, home of the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Tuesday, for the second game in a row, the Kings spotted the Flames a lead, then picked themselves up off the ice to pull out a victory with three final-period goals.

The final score Tuesday at the Olympic Saddledome before a sellout crowd of 20,107 was 5-3. The final score Saturday at the Forum was 4-3.

The result: Calgary dropped into a tie with Edmonton for first place in the Smythe Division.

And the Kings, who plunged to fourth in the division in January--a month filled with losses, controversy, trades, injuries, porous defense and a general malaise--seem to be greeting February with rediscovered optimism.

Amazing what a couple of victories over the defending champions can do for you, even though the Kings are only at .500 (24-24-6).

“There are only 26 games left until the playoffs,” said King defenseman Steve Duchesne. “We were supposed to be the team to beat. We want to be the team to beat.”

It was Duchesne who started the Tuesday comeback after the Flames had moved into a 3-2 lead after two periods.

The Kings had a three-minute power play going after a five-minute match penalty against Brad McCrimmon for kicking Tim Watters. That came in a confrontation that also resulted in a two-minute roughing call against McCrimmon, a 10-minute misconduct and game misconduct against the Flames’ Tim Hunter, and two-minute penalties against Watters and Tom Laidlaw of the Kings.

But the Kings had only three missed shots on goal to show for the first 2:58 of their power play.

Then, with two seconds left, Wayne Gretzky passed to Duchesne in the slot, and he responded with his 14th goal at 4:24.

Asked later if he felt added pressure because the clock had run down to a few seconds, Duchesne replied, “It had?”

That goal got the Kings even.

Luc Robitaille put them ahead after spinning around defender Gary Suter to take a centering pass from Todd Elik.

“Once I spun around,” Robitaille said, “I yelled to Todd to give me the puck. I was open, he got it to me on my stick and I knew I couldn’t miss from that distance.”

Robitaille’s goal, his 37th, came at 15:19, pushing the Kings into a 4-3 lead.

When Calgary pulled its goalie in the closing minute, Tomas Sandstrom added his 22nd goal with 25 seconds to play.

The Kings won with assistants Cap Raeder and Rick Wilson running the team while Coach Tom Webster stays home to nurse an ear injury.

They won with backup goalie Mario Gosselin while starter Kelly Hrudey stayed home with a viral infection.

Gosselin was impressive for the second game in a row, facing 31 shots and stopping 28.

He gave up the game’s first goal to McCrimmon. The Flame defenseman opened the scoring with his fourth goal just 1:47 into the game.

The Kings tied the score on a costly play. Charging the net, John Tonelli scored his 22nd goal at 12:16 of the period. But Tonelli tripped over goalie Mike Vernon as his momentum carried him into the crease. Tonelli wound up on the ice, and Suter, crashing in from the other side, wound up on top of Tonelli.

Tonelli left the game dazed and did not return, later requiring three stitches to close a cut under his nose.

Gary Roberts pushed his team back into the lead at 5:58 of the second period, firing a shot from the middle of the left circle that deflected off Gosselin’s stick into the net. It was Roberts’ 27th goal.

Mikko Makela followed with his eighth goal at 15:56 on the power play.

Like Duchesne, he scored at the end of a power play, as time ran out on the penalty.

Makela had another problem too. Suter was pulling him to the ice as he skated in from the right side. But Makela managed to push the puck in as he fell.

Joe Mullen gave Calgary a temporary advantage with his 19th goal at 17:14 of the second period.

Then, another comeback.

“You can’t lose confidence in yourself,” Gretzky said. “You’ve got to be believers. I don’t think we ever lost that. These are only two games, but they are two big games.”

King Notes

Some confusion remains over Coach Tom Webster’s ear problem. On Jan. 26, he fell in the shower in his Edmonton hotel room, causing a concussion. But did the fall also cause the ear problem and the accompanying dizziness, or did the dizziness come first, causing the fall? “I don’t know that myself,” said Webster by phone from his Los Angeles home. The answer might provide doctors with a clue as to whether this is a new, perhaps less severe injury caused by the fall, or a recurrence of an old, more serious problem in the same ear. A hole in the inner chamber of the ear had to be surgically repaired in 1986, forcing Webster to resign as head coach of the New York Rangers. It is hoped the two-week rest period prescribed by doctors might be enough for the injury to heal.

The hot rumor in Calgary is a trade that would send defenseman Gary Suter and center Joel Otto to the Philadelphia Flyers for center Ron Sutter and defenseman Jeff Chychrun. . . . Flame defenseman Al MacInnis went on trial Tuesday in Calgary, along with his brother Robert, on assault charges stemming from a brawl outside a downtown bar last summer.