Kings Run Into Some Official Difficulty, 3-2 : Hockey: Goal by Zhitnik is disallowed as Toronto rallies from a two-goal deficit.

Toronto Coach Pat Burns looked upset as he stood behind the bench in the second period at the Forum on Thursday night.

Less than a minute later, King Coach Barry Melrose had a similar expression and threw in some angry words for accompaniment.

Their anger had nothing to do with one another in their first meeting since the Campbell Conference finals last spring. They had a similar foe: the replacement officials. For the Kings, who blew a two-goal lead and lost to the Maple Leafs, 3-2, it was their first loss in nine home games as they had gone 7-0-1 after losing the season opener at the Forum.

The game-winner came from Maple Leaf center John Cullen at 9:36 of the third period. Glenn Anderson started the play as he was skating from right to left and could not get a shot off with King goaltender Kelly Hrudey staying with him and forcing him wide. Former King Mike Krushelnyski, who had scored the tying goal on the power play at 2:42 of the third, picked up the loose puck and threw it across the crease to Cullen, who tapped it into an empty net.

Cullen’s goal was the Maple Leafs’ 42nd shot, which also said something about Thursday night’s game as Toronto outshot the Kings, 47-21. By the third period, it looked as if the Kings had played the previous night, not the Maple Leafs.

It was the Kings’ first experience playing in a game with replacement officials. Referee Michael Foy and linesmen Don Moffatt and Brian Farley worked their second game in two nights.

The trio also officiated in Anaheim on Wednesday night without any obvious difficulties but found things much more emotional and more physical. The Kings and Maple Leafs had playoff-like intensity, which even translated to the sellout crowd of 16,005, culminating in at least one fight in the stands.

Burns got upset late in the second period when center Doug Gilmour was assessed a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct after Wendel Clark scored the Maple Leafs’ first goal of the game at 18:20, cutting the Kings’ lead to 2-1. Apparently, Gilmour challenged the Kings’ Alexei Zhitnik to a fight and Foy heard him make the threat and handed out the penalty.

“Check your hearing aid,” a Maple Leafs official yelled from the press box.

But Melrose had more reason to become unnerved because the officials waved off an apparent goal by Zhitnik with 41.6 seconds remaining in the second. Zhitnik beat Toronto goaltender Felix Potvin with a blast from the left point, but Foy ruled there was no goal because Tony Granato interfered with Potvin.

The Kings had taken a 2-0 lead on John Druce’s first goal as a King, at 2:07 of the first, and Jari Kurri’s ninth of the season on a 50-foot slap shot at 3:58 of the second.

Before the game, Brian Burke, the NHL senior vice president of hockey operations, visited the Kings’ dressing room. He has been making his way around the league during the officials’ strike. His message to the Kings was succinct.

“The success of this period will be dictated largely by the players,” Burke said. “If they show a little patience, everything will be fine. If they don’t, they’re gonna see me in New York.”

Oddly enough, the most vocal player about the quality of the replacement officials has been the Blues’ Brett Hull, a former client of Burke’s.

So, how long will the players’ patience prevail?

“That’s a legitimate question,” Burke said. “None of us has any delusions that if this goes two, three weeks, it will go without incident. But we have those now with our contracted officials.”