Kings Come Up Empty, 5-2 : Hockey: Tired and hurting, they run out of gas in Detroit and lose to the Red Wings.

The wounded and weary Kings simply wore down on the final stop of their five-game, 10-day trip. And as a result, the Red Wings scored three power-play goals and one short-handed goal in a 5-2 victory Tuesday night before 19,875 at Joe Louis Arena.

The Kings, who lost for the first time in four games, now have a different look, having added six players from Phoenix--defensemen Sean O’Donnell, Chris Snell and Rob Cowie and forwards Rob Brown, Yanic Perreault and Gary Shuchuk.

Injured on this trip and out of the lineup are defenseman Rob Blake (strained groin), forward Jari Kurri (hip flexor) and forward Tony Granato (hip flexor). Center Robert Lang and Cowie are also ailing. Defenseman Denis Tsygurov missed games because of a facial injury. And Wayne Gretzky has a tender right knee after a collision Monday with Toronto forward Kent Manderville.

“If we hadn’t had too many guys out, I wouldn’t have dressed,” said Gretzky, who went pointless against Detroit and had one shot on goal.

Scoring the Kings’ goals were Michel Petit, his third of the season, and Rick Tocchet, who got his 14th. For the Red Wings, Slava Kozlov scored twice and added an assist, and Dino Ciccarelli had a goal and two assists.

But what would a King game be without more injuries?

Left wing Randy Burridge, colliding with Red Wing forward Shawn Burr, suffered a mild concussion at 4:20 of the second period and did not return. He will be re-evaluated today in Los Angeles. Left wing Eric Lacroix suffered a bruised wrist in the third period but said he was fine.

“After every game, you don’t know what to expect,” said King goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who faced 43 shots. “You sort of tiptoe past the medical room.”

Defenseman Marty McSorley said: “It’s not just one. It seems like our forwards are all getting hurt now, and before it was the defensemen going down. Now it’s the forwards’ turn.”

But Coach Barry Melrose tried to smile, saying: “I don’t believe in curses. The rain and the groin injuries will go away and we’ll keep working hard.”

Despite the end of the Kings’ three-game winning streak, there were reasons for optimism in the way they played after hitting bottom on the first game of this trip, an 8-2 loss to Dallas on March 6. The Kings (8-12-4) have completed the first half of the 48-game schedule and are showing signs of a pulse even with all the injuries. Against Detroit, they were in it until the middle of the second period when the Red Wings picked up the tempo on the power play.

King General Manager Sam McMaster, here in the midst of an evaluation period, said he was pleased with the recent effort. “They’ve played with a lot of heart,” he said. “We’ve shown we have depth, and I’ve got a lot to be proud about. I can’t believe how hard they’ve been playing. . . . After that game (in Dallas) I don’t know what would have happened if we had (continued losing). But we won and we just want to keep their spirits up.”

The Kings now face an important stretch with four of the next five games at the Forum, where they are 2-8-2.

Yet, it seems as though they have been confronting critical periods all season, and it has been enough to age a coach prematurely.

“Sure, about a hundred years,” Melrose said. “There’s a lot of words for it. We’ve been through hell here the last two years. And a lot of it is directed at me--and rightfully so.”

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King Notes

Wayne Gretzky dedicated the Maple Leaf game to a young Canadian friend, Robbie Wilcox, 7, of Hamilton, Ontario, who died of brain cancer Monday. Gretzky wore a helmet with Robbie’s name on it, and the child will be buried with the helmet beside him. Gretzky, who met the youngster through a charitable foundation in 1993, called Wilcox on the weekend and talked about how the friendship put everything in perspective, adding: “Does it ever, especially when you have kids yourself.”