Kings’ Winless Streak Reaches Eight as the Flames Roll, 4-2

The winless streak gets a little longer.

Coach Barry Melrose’s hair gets a little grayer.

Wayne Gretzky’s patience gets a little shorter.

The chances for a playoff berth get a little slimmer.

The Kings lost to the Calgary Flames on Saturday night, 4-2, before a sellout Saddledome crowd of 20,230 to extend their streak without a victory to eight games spread over a nightmarish two weeks.

Blown leads, missed shots, dumb penalties--you name it, the Kings have been guilty of it in going 0-6-2 to drop their record to 21-33-8, five points behind the San Jose Sharks and three behind the Mighty Ducks in the battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Kings have 22 games left.

“We have to start playing like the team that we were last year,” wing Luc Robitaille said. “We are that team.”

Well, the uniforms are the same, but there is little else that resembles the club that made it to the Stanley Cup Finals a year ago.

Friday night, the Kings got 53 shots, including 18 in the first period, against the Edmonton Oilers and had to settle for a 5-5 tie.

Saturday night, the Kings didn’t get 18 shots in the entire game. They wound up being outshot, 48-16, including 20-3 in the second period.

But the Kings were still in the game in the final period against the Pacific Division-leading Flames, who improved to 32-22-10.

And if a couple of King shots hadn’t hit the cross-bar, the game might have turned out differently.

The first cross-bar clanger was by Robitaille in the second period after the Kings escaped the first 20 minutes tied at 1-1 despite being outshot, 18-6.

German Titov’s 22nd goal was matched by Gretzky’s 32nd, and the 797th of his career, leaving him four short of Gordie Howe’s career record.

It was the second Gretzky goal in as many nights on what should be a glorious run to the last significant offensive mark held by anyone other than No. 99.

But Gretzky is finding it increasingly difficult to enjoy his personal triumph while team experiences failure after failure.

Theoren Fleury’s 26th goal and Al MacInnis’ 22nd moved the Flames to a 3-1 lead in a second period totally dominated by Calgary.

But King wing John Druce made it a one-goal game 8:39 into the final period when he batted Robert Lang’s pass out of the air into the net for his sixth goal.

Druce had a chance to tie the score late in the period, but his shot also found the cross-bar.

Skating to the other end, Kelly Kisio found himself open for the potential winning goal. Given no choice, Druce hooked Kisio, drawing a penalty.

And on the power play, the Flames got their clincher, Robert Reichel scoring his 32nd goal.

And the Kings’ hope for a postseason spot gets a little weaker.

King Notes

Dallas Star defenseman Mark Tinordi suffered a broken leg last week when he skated into the boards a stride ahead of the Kings’ John Druce. Although it appeared Tinordi lost the footing on his left skate, Druce was given a boarding penalty. League Vice-President Brian Burke subsequently gave Druce a call, asking if Druce had meant to harm Tinordi. No way, Druce replied. Burke told Druce that he would have been suspended if he hadn’t given that answer. “I wouldn’t want to have that happen to anybody,” Druce said Saturday of Tinordi’s injury, “my team, the other team, anybody.” . . . King defenseman Charlie Huddy suffered an ankle bruise Saturday when hit by a puck. The ankle will be X-rayed today.