Situation Gets Sticky as Kings Lose Again : Hockey: Red Wings win, 5-3. Webster is ejected for throwing stick at referee. Detroit scores three goals in third period.

No more doubt about it. The Kings are in a slump.

Coach Tom Webster made it official Saturday night by throwing out the first stick of the season as the Kings lost to the Detroit Red Wings 5-3, before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005 to stretch their unbeaten streak to 0-4-2.

Some coaches throw tantrums. But there is no such subtlety on Webster’s part. He hurls sticks onto the ice with the zeal of a javelin thrower.

He has also been known to throw punches (against the Calgary Flames last season) and insults (against an official, drawing another ejection last season).

But it is the sticks that have become Webster’s trademark. He was ejected for throwing one last season against Calgary.

The one he threw Saturday didn’t match in distance, but made up for it in accuracy, appearing to graze the foot of referee Kerry Fraser, earning Webster an early exit from Saturday’s game in the second period.

The dispute began with a confrontation between King defenseman Larry Robinson and Detroit’s Vladimir Konstantinov.

Robinson drew a two-minute crosschecking penalty and a 10-minute misconduct.

When an instant replay on the scoreboard clearly showed Robinson retaliating for being crosschecked from behind by Konstantinov, the crowd booed and Webster, pointing to the screen, went for his trusty stick.

Fraser finally reponded by slapping Konstantinov with a two-minute crosschecking penalty as well.

But by then, Webster was gone, his Kings soon to follow as they fell to 8-7-5.

Webster said his anger stemmed from both the fact that he thought Robinson alone had been penalized and his feeling that the perceived injustice had been compounded by adding a 10-minute misconduct onto Robinson.

But, Webster conceded, “when I lost my temper, I shouldn’t have. I know better. It was regrettable.”

The Red Wings put the game away with three third-period goals, Steve Yzerman getting his seventh and eighth of the season with Ray Sheppard adding his 10th.

Sylvain Couturier closed out the scoring with his second for the Kings.

The Kings’ most glaring deficiency in this slump is their power play. They were zero for eight in that department and gave up a short-handed goal Saturday, making them zero for 11 on the power play over two games and three for 31 over their last six games.

Wayne Gretzky, who has five goals and 17 points in 15 games, put the blame for his team’s slump squarely on his own shoulders.

“You don’t point fingers,” he said. “You just stand in front of the mirror and talk about how bad you’ve been playing.

“The club has been looking to me and I’ve been the biggest casualty on the squad. . . . I don’t think I’ve ever felt as disappointed in myself as I have in the last 10 days. It happens and you have to just work that much harder.”

While the Kings can’t beat anyone, the Red Wings are streaking in the opposite direction. Detroit’s victory, making it 5-0-1 in its last six, moved the Red Wings into first place in the Norris Division at 11-8-2.

After giving up the game’s first goal in nine consecutive games, the Kings scored first for the second time in a row, Mike Donnelly putting in his ninth goal 1:33 into the game.

Bob Kudelski got his ninth at 10:12 of the period to boost the Kings into a 2-0 lead.

But before the period was over, the Red Wings had evened the game.

Brad Marsh got the Red Wings on the scoreboard at 11:10 of the period, bouncing the puck into the net off goalie Kelly Hrudey’s right leg for his first goal of the season in his 15th game.

Then Bob Probert tied the game on a fancy move at 16:33.

Coming in from the right side, Probert deked both Hrudey and defenseman Rob Blake, leaving both sprawled on the ice.

That left Probert an open net on the left side, and he filled it for his eighth goal.

When the game was over, Webster, ejected for the fourth time in his career and second on a stick infraction, met with owner Bruce McNall and General Manager Rogie Vachon.

“He’s going to have to keep his composure,” Vachon said of his coach. “We need him behind the bench. He’s just going to have to control his emotions better.”

McNall, in a more lighthearted mood, had a better idea.

“He (Webster) is training for the javelin throw at USC for the pre-Olympic trials,” McNall said. “I always wanted a gold medal.”

King Notes

The Red Wings came in here with their hottest road record in two seasons, since they were 3-0-1 away from home late in 1989. The early part of last season was just the opposite. Detroit was winless in its first 10 road games, going 0-7-3. . . . Going into Saturday’s game, the Kings had won 11 of their previous 15 against the Red Wings, including the last five at the Forum. . . . Detroit’s last win on the Kings’ home ice came Feb. 15, 1988. . . . The Kings will be in San Francisco to play the San Jose Sharks Tuesday, then come back to the Forum for three more games.