Canadiens Dampen the Kings’ Spirits, 3-2 : Hockey: Courtnall scores with 38 seconds to play, spoiling the return of Sandstrom and McSorley. L.A. is 2-8-4 in its last 14 games.

It was the night Dave Taylor scored his 400th career goal.

It was the the night Tomas Sandstrom and Marty McSorley came back.

But nobody in the Kings locker room was in a celebrating mood.

Because it was also the night the Montreal Canadiens came back.

Rallying with three goals in the final period, including the winner by Russ Courtnall with 38 seconds to play, Montreal defeated the Kings, 3-2, Saturday night before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005.

“What can you say?” King Coach Tom Webster said. “How do you figure we could work as hard as we did and still lose? We played a hell of a hockey game and didn’t win. It’s just not fair.”

Shortly before Courtnall’s goal, Wayne Gretzky shot from in close and Rob Blake shot from the right circle, but Montreal goalie Jean-Claude Bergeron stopped both, Blake’s shot knocking him over.

Brian Skrudland recovered the puck after Blake’s shot and got it to Courtnall. He shot from 40 feet out, the puck barely clearing the outstretched glove of goalie Kelly Hrudey for Courtnall’s 11th goal.

The Kings dropped to 18-13-5, 2-8-4 in their last 14. And they dropped five points behind the Smythe Division-leading Calgary Flames, winners over the Hartford Whalers Saturday night.

“We play a strong game,” Hrudey said, “it goes down to the wire and we find ways to lose. Lord knows, everyone here is trying.”

Montreal is 19-16-5.

Sandstrom and McSorley had been sidelined for a month, Sandstrom because of a fracture in the lower back, McSorley because of bruised ribs.

But neither could halt the Kings’ slump.

Taylor, now in his 14th season, became the 30th player in NHL history to get 400 goals.

The milestone came at 6:48 of the second period. Todd Elik whipped a pass from the end boards through two Montreal defenders to Taylor in front of the net.

Taylor swept the puck through the pads of Bergeron for his 11th goal of the season to give the Kings a 2-0 lead.

“It means a lot to me,” Taylor said of the goal. “I just feel fortunate to have played 14 seasons with some great players like Marcel Dionne and Charlie Simmer and now on a line with Luc Robitaille and Todd Elik. I was a 15th-round draft choice and it was a chore just making this club at first.”

Gretzky scored the game’s first goal off the stick of Montreal defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre 1:53 into the period. It was Gretzky’s team-leading 22nd goal, his league-leading 68th point and the 699th goal of his career.

The Canadiens got on the scoreboard the hard way.

The Kings were on a power play at the start of the final period because of a Montreal bench minor called on Coach Pat Burns. But Robitaille’s pass into the slot from the left boards was intercepted by Mike Keane.

The Montreal wing took the puck down the slot and shoved it past the helpless Hrudey on the right side 1:15 into the period. It was Keane’s ninth goal and the team’s fifth short-handed.

Burns called the bench minor “the most amazing turning point in the game. I was upset by the officials’ calls, but I was more upset at my players. I did some furniture changes in the dressing room.”

Lefebvre’s third goal, at 12:22, tied the score.

Any fan caught in traffic missed McSorley’s return. He barely lasted 30 seconds on the ice.

Only 13 seconds into the game, he was slapped with a roughing penalty. Then, at the 8:09 mark of the first period, McSorley got into an altercation that resulted in a game misconduct and an automatic ejection.

An incensed Webster nearly duplicated his stick-throwing incident of a few weeks ago. This time, after grabbing a handy stick, the Kings coach thought better of it and settled for an angry snarl at the officials.

Before the evening was over, there would be a lot worse to fume over.

King Notes

The comeback of defenseman Tom Laidlaw is over for now. And probably for this season. Sidelined since March because of a disk problem, Laidlaw had improved enough to begin playing with the Kings’ Phoenix Roadrunner farm team. But Thursday night, in Laidlaw’s fourth game for the Roadrunners, the trouble flared anew. “I hit a guy,” Laidlaw said, “and felt a little twinge. It wasn’t that bad. Then I reached for the puck and I felt a spasm and the pain shooting down my leg. I went to the bench and caught the first plane for L.A.” Laidlaw knows the implications of what he felt. “I’m right back to where I was,” he said. “There’s not much more a doctor can do. If you figure it would take me another month and half to two months to get going again, you’re looking at March.” . . . This was the Kings’ final Forum appearance of 1990. The club will play five road games before returning to face the Hartford Whalers Jan. 8.