The Stakes Were Rare : With His Father Watching, Donnelly Scored on Penalty Shot

Mike Donnelly, the General Motors executive, was not supposed to be in Los Angeles to witness his son’s successful penalty shot against the Vancouver Canucks.

A business trip brought him from Michigan to the West Coast. But his final destination was supposed to be several hundred miles away, in Northern California.

Mike Donnelly, the left wing, who never supposed he would end up in Los Angeles, explained how Mike ended up watching Mike on Thursday night at the Forum.

“Actually, he was going to San Francisco and his meeting got canceled,” the younger Donnelly said. “He ended up coming to Los Angeles.”

Father and son were sporting wide smiles after the Kings’ 7-4 victory. Donnelly scored two second-period goals, one on a penalty shot and another on a breakaway.

Donnelly, 29, is in his third season with the Kings. He scored 29 goals and 45 points last season after being rescued from Buffalo’s organization in 1990, when the Kings acquired him from the Sabres for the forgettable Mikko Makela.

Until then, Donnelly had been sitting on the bench in Rochester, N.Y., with the Sabres’ American Hockey League affiliate.

Said King Coach Barry Melrose: “I knew a lot about him from the American League. I knew he was good. But I never thought he was going to be this good.”

For Donnelly, the penalty shot probably was the most significant moment of his NHL career.

“I’d have to say it was right up there,” said Donnelly, who has eight goals and 16 points this season. “That’s a pretty big highlight.”

Referee Dan Marouelli awarded the penalty shot when Canuck defenseman Dana Murzyn threw his stick, attempting to stop Donnelly from scoring. There was a delay--which seemed like an eternity to Donnelly--before he actually took the shot. The music was blaring at the Forum and the crowd was on its feet, clapping and chanting.

Donnelly waited.

Of course, the Canucks dragged the matter out, asking Marouelli to explain the rationale behind the call.

Donnelly waited some more.

“I was excited and really thrilled to take it,” he said. “All of a sudden the fans are going crazy before I shot and I’m going, ‘Oh, geez.’ Usually, you don’t hear that kind of stuff during a game. You’re usually so involved. Maybe it was because of the delay. (Marouelli) was talking to everybody.”

Only one King spoke up during the delay. It was, no surprise, the talkative Marty McSorley.

“Marty came up to me and said, ‘Make sure you use your speed,’ ” Donnelly said. “And I think that was the key to the play. It was a helpful tip. Usually in those situations, everybody’s got things to say. I was just trying to keep to myself.”

Said Melrose: “He did the right thing. The tendency is to go too slow. It’s better to do things fast.”

The Kings have scored on nine of 19 penalty shots in their franchise history. Luc Robitaille had scored on the Kings’ last penalty shot, against Hartford’s Kay Whitmore on Feb. 6 of this year. This season, there have been three successful penalty shots in five attempts in the NHL.

There has been some talk among the NHL’s Board of Governors to institute some form of a shootout if there is no resolution after the five-minute overtime. Quebec President and owner Marcel Aubut endorses the idea, which would give the winning team two points, the losing team one.

“As far as fan excitement, it would be great,” Donnelly said. “That’s an extra amount of pressure on goaltenders. If you’re going to face five breakaways, over 80-something games, that’s a lot of added pressure. There’s going to be a lot of tie games (after the overtime) where you’d have the shootout.”

Melrose has mixed feelings about shootouts.

“As a hockey purist, no,” he said. “If I’m a fan, yes. I love shootouts. We used to have it in the American League and it was great. The coach would pick five shooters and then five more before the game. One player shoots from your team and another player shoots from the other team. If your guy scores and the other guy doesn’t, you win. It’s a sudden-death shootout. It was great.

“Could you imagine this: (Jari) Kurri, Robitaille, (Tomas) Sandstrom, (Paul) Coffey and (Tony) Granato? That would be unbelievable. You’d have Mario (Lemieux) going against Jari in a shootout. People would love it.”

Except, of course, for the goaltenders. King goaltender Kelly Hrudey jokes about his inability to stop penalty shots.

Said Melrose: “No, Kelly would respond if we did it. I know he would.”

King Notes

Coach Barry Melrose held a closed-door team meeting after Friday’s practice at Culver City, discussing several matters. In particular, he was upset about sloppy play in the third period against Vancouver. He also made his feelings clear about captain Luc Robitaille’s first-period outburst, which resulted in three minor penalties. The Kings killed off all three penalties. “Our leaders can’t do that,” Melrose said. “He put himself ahead of the team for about 10 seconds there and took his frustrations out at the expense of the team. The team came and saved him. You need leaders more when things go bad than when things are going good. Luc knows that and we addressed it as a team. It won’t happen again.”