Kings Can’t Turn Over a New Leaf : Hockey: Even a different goalie doesn’t help as Toronto scores three unanswered goals in the third period, 5-3.

Another city.

Another third period.

Another disaster.

The Kings changed goalies and changed lineups Monday night, but they couldn’t change an alarming ability to give games away with a defense that looks about as solid as Mike Tyson’s hold on the heavyweight title.

Up 3-2 going into the final period, they surrendered three goals to lose, 5-3, to the Toronto Maple Leafs before a sellout Maple Leaf Garden crowd of 16,382.

Four of the Maple Leafs’ goals came on power plays. The final one went into an empty net in the final minute of play.

“We are going to have to keep working,” said King interim co-coach Rick Wilson, “until we find a chemistry that clicks for 60 minutes.”

The Kings blew a 5-3 lead in Pittsburgh in their last game by giving up four final-period goals, for a total of seven in two games.

The Kings, losers of three in a row to fall to 24-27-6, benched Mikko Makela and Brian Benning and started Ron Scott in goal.

Scott, called up from the club’s minor-league team in New Haven, faced 28 shots and gave up the four power plays.

It has been a grueling seven weeks for the Kings. Since New Year’s Day, they are 5-11-2.

It has been particularly frustrating for Wayne Gretzky, who has been The Not So Great One of late.

He has scored just one goal in his last six games and had two assists in his last four.

He is still second in the league with 107 points, but Monday his mind was focused on the one that got away, a breakaway in the third period that missed the mark with the Kings up, 3-2, and in a Maple Leaf power play.

“I had the breakaway,” he said. “I thought I made a pretty good move, but I put it wide. If I get that, we go up 4-2. Instead, they come down and tie it 3-3. But that’s the way it’s been going the last few weeks.

“The last couple of games, I’ve let the team down more than anyone. I know that. And I feel bad. If I get that (the breakaway), we win the game.”

Toronto and the Kings took the ice as the two highest scoring teams in the league, so there figured to be plenty of goals, especially considering the Kings have now given up 17 in three games.

Maple Leaf right wing Gary Leeman got two Monday night, as did defenseman Al Iafrate.

Iafrate’s first opened the scoring at the 11:23 mark of the first period.

The Kings answered with a defenseman of their own, Tom Laidlaw getting his first goal of the season at 5:23 of the second.

After Leeman produced his team-leading 37th goal at 8:29 of the period, Jay Miller (seventh) and Todd Elik (fourth) scored to give the Kings a 3-2 advantage.

But there was still a third period to play, not exactly showtime for this Forum team.

Iafrate’s second goal, his 16th of the season, tied the game at 1:08 of the last period.

On yet another Toronto power play, Elik almost scored short-handed, missed, but got the rebound and passed it to Mike Krushelnyski in a pileup in front of the Maple Leaf goal. Krushelnyski was hit by Rob Ramage, who took the puck away and passed to Vincent Damphousse.

Damphousse slid the puck to center Gilles Thibaudeau, who, on a two-on-one rush, took six big strides to the goal and fired the puck over Scott’s glove.

It was Thibaudeau’s ninth goal and, as it turned out, an insurmountable lead for Toronto, which improved to 30-26-2, good enough to tie for second in the Norris Division, just two points behind the Chicago Blackhawks.

Leeman closed out the scoring for the Maple Leafs with his 38th goal into the empty net.

So where do the Kings go from here? For one thing, look for more of Scott in goal.

“I think he deserves another chance,” said Wilson, who, along with fellow assistant coach Cap Raeder, is running the team while head man Tom Webster stays home to nurse an inner-ear problem.

Scott’s family lives in Guelph, about an hour out of Toronto, and his parents were on hand, and Scott, 29, admitted he was nervous in his first NHL start since December of 1987. He was 5-0-1 in his last six games at New Haven after missing nearly two months with a sprained ankle.

“I felt better,” he said of Monday night, “as the game wore on.”

Was he pleased with his effort?

“We didn’t win,” he said. “Being close isn’t enough.”

Gretzky knows just how he feels.

“It doesn’t matter how many goals or assists you get,” Gretzky said. “If you’re not winning, it’s no fun.”

King Notes

When Tomas Sandstrom scored on a penalty shot Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, he broke a streak that had lasted nearly nine years. The Penguins had stopped 12 straight such shots, since Ilkka Sinisalo of the Philadelphia Flyers beat goalie Paul Harrison on Oct. 11, 1981. . . . The Kings will conclude this four-game trip with games in Detroit Wednesday and Minnesota Thursday.