Feisty Kings Pay Price in Loss to Flyers

One of the Kings lashed out at an official in the heat of the moment in the third period of their 5-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday night, and the biggest surprise was his identity.

No, it wasn’t Luc Robitaille or Tony Granato or Wayne Gretzky. And--at least that time--it wasn’t Coach Barry Melrose.

It was mild-mannered left wing Mike Donnelly. Donnelly, upset over an offside with the Kings trailing by two goals, yelled something unprintable at linesman Gord Broseker and received an unsportsmanlike penalty at 12:03.

Philadelphia defenseman Yves Racine scored on the ensuing power play to put the game out of reach before a sellout crowd of 17,380 at the Spectrum.

The loss ended the Kings’ six-game unbeaten streak on the road and it was only their second defeat in the last 10 games overall. The Kings (18-22-4) did not go down without some fighting words: Melrose got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty after Racine’s goal at 12:55.

“I was clapping,” Melrose said, smiling. “I’d never criticize our refs. I’ve given $5,000 to their pension fund.”

Melrose was fined $5,000 earlier this season for his public criticism of the replacement officials during the officials’ strike. He disagreed with the timing of Broseker’s call and wondered why it was a penalty because referee Bill McCreary did not make the call initially.

“I don’t think you can put what he (Donnelly) said in the paper,” Melrose said. “It’s a tough call at that time. I thought it is made if you embarrass the referee or linesmen. Nobody in the building heard what he said.

“If you’ve got a thin skin, you shouldn’t be in coaching or refereeing.”

King goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who faced 41 shots, was not directing criticism at Donnelly, but he said the Kings need to work on maintaining their composure in critical situations. And Sunday, the Kings gave the Flyers’ power play opportunity after opportunity. In all, the Flyers were two for nine.

Donnelly was still irritated at Broseker after the game. Broseker also worked the Kings-New Jersey game on Saturday.

“I told him he screwed up the last two games,” Donnelly said. “I just thought he made some questionable calls. There’s a fine line. Maybe I overreacted. It (the call) was not necessary. I’ve heard a lot worse. When you are down, 4-2, with seven minutes to go, it is not a good penalty to take. We were down two goals, but it was still a bad call.

“I guess I learned a lesson--not to say anything to a linesman.”

Robitaille walked by Donnelly and added his opinion.

“There’s 300 linesmen in this league and we get the same ones every night,” he said. “Why does the league do that?

“They’re only human and if you say something one night, they remember it the next night.”

Two nights of Broseker were more than enough for the weary Kings.

The Kings started slowly, falling behind, 4-0, before getting two goals in the final 3:42 of the second period. About a minute before Donnelly’s penalty, defenseman Alexei Zhitnik nearly pulled the Kings within a goal but was stopped on a breakaway by goaltender Dominic Roussel.

The Kings’ Jari Kurri scored on the power play for his 19th of the season. Gretzky, who assisted on Kurri’s goal, scored his 22nd of the season with 43 seconds left in the period. He is 14 goals from tying and 15 from breaking Gordie Howe’s all-time record of 801 goals.