King Defense Helps Flyers Wake Up, 7-5

In the end, it was simply too much to overcome.

Too big a lead and not enough time.

Too much Philadelphia offense and not enough King defense.

Too much Daniel Berthiaume and not enough Kelly Hrudey.

As a result, the Flyers, leading 6-2, held on to defeat the Kings, 7-5, Thursday night before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005.

You would never know it, but the Flyers had been in an offensive slump during which they scored only seven goals in four games, an 0-2-2 span.

They matched that in 60 minutes, scoring six of their goals against Berthiaume before Coach Tom Webster yanked him and put Hrudey in.

It was the fourth loss in five games for Berthiaume, who had a 9-1 start before starting to struggle. In the last six games, including one no-decision, Berthiaume has surrendered 27 goals.

But despite the six he gave up Thursday, this was a defeat for which Berthiaume could not be held primarily responsible.

He had little help from his defenders, who allowed the Flyers to roam through the slot unchecked.

“Our defensive zone coverage was awful,” Webster said. “Probably the worst it’s been all year. But that’s what comes from losing the one-on-one battles. You’ve got to win those. That’s probably our biggest weakness right now.”

But despite Philadelphia’s fast start, the Kings were still in the game, down by only 6-5 with five minutes to play.

Then the Kings were slapped with back-to-back penalties, to Luc Robitaille and Bob Halkidis, giving the Flyers a two-man advantage for 35 seconds.

Hrudey held firm against a Flyer onslaught, making three saves before Robitaille returned.

Hrudey saved two more in the one-man advantage before finally giving up Rick Tocchet’s team-leading 24th goal with 18 seconds remaining on the power play.

The shot, from the top of the left circle at 17:10, killed the Kings’ last hope, dropping them to 18-12-5. They are 2-7-4 in their last 13.

The Flyers improved to 20-17-5.

Philadelphia served notice early that its scoring drought was over.

Only 59 seconds into the game, Mike Ricci scored from in close off a feed from Pelle Eklund.

The Kings briefly took the lead on John Tonelli’s seventh goal and John McIntyre’s third only 31 seconds apart. But the Flyers then scored five goals in a row.

Tim Kerr began the run with his seventh at 12:09 of the first period, making his return a triumphant one.

Kerr’s season has been a nightmare. His wife died of complications from childbirth soon after the start of the season.

On Nov. 10, he suffered torn cartilage in his right knee and has been recuperating since.

His goal was followed by Scott Mellanby’s 11th at 16:21 of the period.

The Flyers increased their lead to 6-2 in the second period with goals by Ricci (12th of the season), Murray Craven (10th) and Kjell Samuelsson (sixth).

That was enough for Webster. He pulled Berthiaume at 14:19 of the second period.

Dave Taylor made the score 6-3 by putting in a rebound off a shot by Rob Blake on a power play at 17:56 of the second period.

Robitaille scored his 18th goal 1:20 into the final period and his 19th on a power play off a pass from Wayne Gretzky at 11:19 to cut the margin to 6-5.

But that was as close as they could get.

“We just can’t get in these situations,” Gretzky said. “It’s as simple as that.”

Simple to say, anyway.

King Notes

Wing Tomas Sandstrom still has some soreness in his lower back, but that is from skating for the first time in a month. Gone is the pain that resulted from a fracture in that area Nov. 29 in St. Louis. Sandstrom is hoping to play for the first time Monday in Minnesota. . . . Wing Tony Granato, sidelined for three games because of a strained rib cartilage, has not resumed practicing. . . . Tom Laidlaw played in his fourth game for the Phoenix Roadrunners Thursday night after sitting out since last March because of a back injury.