Canucks Maintain Their Dominance Over Kings

If there wasn’t much incentive for the Kings to finish third in the Smythe Division, well, the stimulus to do so became obvious Wednesday night.

Vancouver 6, Kings 2.

The Kings simply do not match up well against the first-place Canucks and would seem to have a better chance against the Calgary Flames in the opening round of the playoffs.

They have lost to Vancouver five times this season, including three consecutive times at Pacific Coliseum. Vancouver is vulnerable against tight-checking, in-your-face type teams.

So, in came the run-and-gun Kings, playing their own brand of wide-open hockey. The Canucks, who had lost four consecutive games, found solace in this and right wing Pavel Bure found the net, ending an eight-game goal-less streak, the longest in his two-year career. Bure scored twice for his 54th and 55th of the season.

Bure scored on a power play at 12:49 of the first period against King goaltender Rick Knickle and with the Canucks at even-strength at 3:15 of the second against Kelly Hrudey.

The Kings are three deep at goaltender and the way Knickle played against the Canucks that number could be reduced to two if he has another performance like Wednesday’s.

Any chance the Kings had to win their fifth consecutive game ended with Knickle giving up four goals on 10 shots. He was relieved by Hrudey at 13:47 of the first period after Trevor Linden’s unintentional stab from the left circle caught him leaning the wrong way.

“This is the first time I got rattled,” Knickle said. “It’s not like me. I’m going to have a game like this, but this is a very bad time. I rattled myself. It was very unusual for me. I don’t know why.”

The Canucks scored again and the Kings couldn’t recover from a 5-0 deficit, especially with the Canucks forcing the pace.

Vancouver increased its lead in the Smythe Division over second-place Calgary to five points. The Kings are three points ahead of the fourth-place Winnipeg Jets.

Knickle looked off his game from the beginning and the Canucks scored on their second shot. Geoff Courtnall beat Knickle with a slow backhander at the right side at 4:09 of the first period. King defenseman Rob Blake, who was on the ice for five of the six Canuck goals, started the scoring play with a giveaway.

“I’d love to forget about this one,” Blake said. “That’s a joke, being a minus-4 in a game. That should never happen. I said to myself, ‘Before the second period, I should go out and play steady defense,’ and then I get scored on my first two shifts. . . . If I want to be a leader on this team I can’t be doing that.”

The Canucks, whose power play was ranked 22nd in the NHL coming into the game, went ahead, 2-0, on Jim Sandlak’s goal at 11:03 of the period with Tony Granato off the ice for interference. It was only the Canucks’ seventh power-play goal since the All-Star break. Before the end of the first period, they added another, this one by Bure.

For the Kings, Luc Robitaille had his goal-scoring streak stopped at 10 games and Wayne Gretzky’s point-scoring streak ended at nine. The Kings’ got second-period goals from Mike Donnelly, his 26th, at 2:06, and Pat Conacher, his seventh, at 8:54.

One of the few bright spots was the return of center Corey Millen, who had missed 38 games because of a strained groin. He hadn’t played since last Dec. 19.

King Coach Barry Melrose was very disappointed in many aspects of the game, particularly in the performance of his defensemen.

“It was probably our defense’s worst game in 15 games,” Melrose said. “Charlie (Huddy) and Muddy (Tim Watters), they’ve played a ton of games, as have the kids. I’d like to rest some of the older guys.”

King Notes

The scratches were right wing Marc Potvin, who has been out of the lineup for two games, and left wing Lonnie Loach and goaltender Robb Stauber. Barry Melrose plans to start Kelly Hrudey against the Oilers on Friday. . . . Defenseman Mark Hardy, acquired from the New York Rangers on Monday, will join the Kings today at their practice in Edmonton.