Sharks Silence the Kings, 6-0 : Hockey: Early skirmish sparks San Jose, which gets its first shutout and avenges last week’s loss to L.A.

This time, a previously successful Kings’ tactic ended up working for another team. A game-opening skirmish unwittingly put the much-needed fight back into the San Jose Sharks on Tuesday night.

The sellout crowd of 11,089 had barely settled into the Cow Palace before King left wing Warren Rychel and Shark right wing Lyndon Byers dropped their gloves and starting fighting after the opening faceoff.

Rychel and Byers fought to a draw, more or less. The Kings should have been so lucky, as they went on to suffer their most embarrassing defeat of the season, a 6-0 loss to the Sharks.

San Jose (4-14-1) was beginning to get desperate, having been on a five-game losing streak. This was its first victory at home in five games. The Kings (12-6-2) have lost two consecutive games after an unbeaten streak of seven.

For the Kings, it all unraveled in a string of silly, retaliatory penalties and a series of defensive lapses. San Jose was successful on two ofits first four power-play opportunities and the Kings simply could not score.

King goaltender Kelly Hrudey agreed that it had been an embarrassing loss.

“Yeah, I think it is,” he said. “There are some losses where you don’t feel like leaving the dressing room. It’s like a safe haven. You don’t want to leave. But you learn about youself and your teammates, too. You’re going to have adversity. It’s how you handle it.”

Said King Coach Barry Melrose: “We need to be reminded that if we’re not the hardest-working team, we can get beat. It’s disappointing because we want to play .500 hockey on the road. It’s an 84-game schedule, you can’t get down from a loss like this.”

The situation was almost a reversal of their previous meeting. A little more than a week ago, the Sharks were suffering a humiliating loss here. On Nov. 8, the Kings beat the Sharks, 11-4, with hat tricks from Luc Robitaille, Jari Kurri and Mike Donnelly.

Tuesday, there were no hat tricks. Right wing Pat Falloon scored twice for the Sharks. San Jose goaltender Arturs Irbe, who was the fall guy in the loss last week, gained back some self-respect by getting the shutout.

It was the first-ever shutout for the second-year Sharks and it came in their 99th game.

Irbe faced 39 shots. The Kings hadn’t been shut out since March 11 of last season when they lost, 4-0, at Hartford. Last season, they lost only once to the Sharks in seven games.

Perhaps the luckiest King of all was backup goaltender Robb Stauber. Since the Kings played back-to-back games, Stauber was expected to start against the Sharks. But Hrudey, who played against Vancouver on Monday, drew the assignment.

The Sharks weren’t the same team this time. But neither were the Kings. They weren’t even the same team that had its impressive moments Monday against the Canucks.

Byers may not have recorded a point, but he turned out to be the Sharks’ spiritual leader, fighting Rychel twice. He was ejected after the second fight, at 15:33 of the second period, picking up a game misconduct for instigation.

“They came out and did what what we did last week,” said King defenseman Rob Blake. “I give Warren (Rychel) 100% credit. Byers challenged him and he didn’t back down. It (the opening fight) showed us they were ready to play. It can work both ways. It helped them and showed us they were going to do anything to win.”

By the time Byers left the game, the outcome was essentially decided with the Sharks holding a 3-0 lead. The Kings’ lack of effort on San Jose’s fourth goal was typical of their work ethic the entire night. Left wing Johan Garpenlov, chasing the puck down in the Kings’ zone, picked it up offthe end boards. Alone, he tucked the puck in between Hrudey’s skate and the left post, making it 4-0 at 18:22 of the second.

King Notes

To get center John McIntyre back into the lineup, defenseman Brent Thompson was scratched on Tuesday. Thompson played little against Vancouver on Monday in his first appearance this season. McIntyre had missed six games with a strained back. Also scratched Tuesday was right wing Bob Kudelski.