Sandstrom Is on Target, but Kings Fall Short, 5-4

It’s hard to tell who is more patient these days in regard to the Kings.

How about the team’s upper management?

Or the long-suffering fans?

Days and losses keep flying by and there is no movement on the trade front. Despite a month-long lack of victories at the Forum, the fans have proved to be amazingly resilient, turning out for sellout after sellout.

It happened again Thursday night--another defeat, this time a 5-4 loss to the Vancouver Canucks, and yet another sellout crowd of 16,005, spoiling a superb performance by right wing Tomas Sandstrom, who scored a hat trick in his first game back in the lineup since Dec. 22.

Not only have the Kings been struggling for more than a month, they have been having no success at home since Dec. 12. That day, they defeated the St. Louis Blues, 6-3. In their last seven games at the Forum, the Kings are 0-6-1.

Since the victory over St. Louis, the Kings are 3-11-2. The victories came against Chicago, Ottawa and Edmonton.

The third-place Kings (23-19-5) fell 12 points behind the first-place Canucks (29-13-5) in the Smythe Division. Goaltender Kelly Hrudey was neither outstanding nor as shaky as he had been the last month. Thursday, he seemed unable to make the big save when necessary.

For the Kings, the loss wasted a sharp outing from Sandstrom, who had missed 23 of the last 24 games because of a broken left forearm.

Toronto center Doug Gilmour’s two-handed slash on Nov. 21 put Sandstrom out of action until Dec. 22. That night, Sandstrom tried to come back against the Canucks but didn’t even last the entire game, suffering a small hairline fracture.

“It cracked perpendicular to the original break,” King physician Ron Kvitne said. “It was another little crack. It was so near the original break that had healed.”

Sandstrom has been pain-free for the last week and Kvitne felt more than confident in letting him return to the lineup.

And, on Thursday, Sandstrom looked as if he had not missed a game as he scored the Kings’ first two goals, keeping them in the game.

“You can see how you might miss a player like that for 20-something games,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “It affects your team. He had three goals tonight, and he could have had six.”

Said Sandstrom, who wore a plastic cast: “I felt pretty good. It would have been nice if we had won the game.”

His first goal, at 10:18 of the opening period, tied the score, 1-1, as he beat goaltender Kirk McLean on the glove side with a shot from the top of the left circle.

Later in the first, Sandstrom tied it at 2-2, converting a rebound of Tony Granato’s shot at 15:04.

But Sandstrom could not do everything himself, and the Canucks responded with three consecutive goals to take a 5-2 lead.

Sergio Momesso put Vancouver ahead for good with 2:48 remaining in the first, finishing off a three-on-two.

Canuck center Petr Nedved scored his 26th goal of the season, at 12:07 of the second period to make it 4-2, which was the only goal of the period.

The Kings got going a little too late, scoring two goals in the last 8:30 of the game. By then, though, the Canucks were leading, 5-2, before the Kings rallied with goals by Marty McSorley and Sandstrom.

Sandstrom pulled the Kings within one at 18:43. With the Kings already on the power-play, they pulled Hrudey for an extra attacker and Sandstrom scored on a quick wrist shot out front. In all, the Kings were two-for-11 on the power play.

McLean was the problem. He faced 46 shots and stopped the Kings time and again.

Melrose could only shake his head afterward, saying: “I think our guru got lost. He ended up going to Vancouver’s room and sat by Kirk McLean’s locker.”