Kings Start, Can’t Finish for Vachon : Hockey: They blow 3-1 lead in final four minutes and have to settle for a 3-3 tie with Oilers.

Hours after the firing of Coach Barry Melrose, King President Rogie Vachon spoke about trying to “jump-start” his inert team. But, unfortunately for the Kings, the anticipated boost of Vachon stepping behind the bench as interim coach along with assistants Dave Taylor and John Perpich did not last the final 3:24 of regulation on Friday.

In that span, the Kings faltered and blew a two-goal lead, tying the Oilers 3-3, before 15,624 at the Forum.

Defenseman Jiri Slegr pulled the Oilers within a goal, 3-2, on the power play with 3:24 left and right wing Kirk Maltby, coming with speed down the right wing, put a great move on King goaltender Grant Fuhr and tied it with 1:33 remaining.

The tie means the Kings (13-21-8) are without a victory in seven consecutive games, going 0-6-1, and fell into a 10th-place tie with the Oilers in the Western Conference, one point behind the San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets.

Fuhr has not won a game in eight appearances (0-6-2) since joining the Kings on Feb. 14. Although he did not have an overly heavy workload--facing 25 shots--he made one particularly outstanding save at 11:30 of the second period on Oiler center Todd Marchant.

The King goals were scored by Dan Quinn (13th of the season) at 8:26 in the first and Eric Lacroix (ninth) on the power play with eight seconds remaining in the first to make it 2-1. Jari Kurri, scoring his first goal in five games and eighth of the season, gave the Kings a 3-1 lead with 7:30 remaining before the Oilers tied it.

Overshadowing the game was the firing of Melrose. He had been the 17th coach of the Kings, and Vachon was one of the other 16. Vachon went behind the bench for two games in 1983-84, going 1-0-1 and coached another game in 1987-88, losing it.

The players were stunned by the move as well as the timing.

“I think everybody’s sharing the blame and everybody’s responsible,” center Wayne Gretzky said. “Every player in here took part of the criticism. . . . It’s not for me to judge what’s right. We’re one point out of a playoff spot and the trading deadline has passed. Obviously they felt we needed some sort of shake-up.”

Said right wing Tony Granato, who is out with a broken foot: “There were rumors about a month ago, but the thought hadn’t crossed my mind in a long time. I was shocked. Totally surprised.”

Earlier in the day, among the reasons Vachon cited for making a change was an inability to beat teams like the Mighty Ducks.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries but the problem is we can’t win against a team like Anaheim,” Vachon said. “You look at Anaheim, they’re not the Detroit Red Wings. We should be able to handle Anaheim.”

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King Notes

Referee Ron Shick was scheduled to have surgery Friday night after suffering a first-period injury. He was cut in the left forearm by a skate, returned to finish the first period but then went to the hospital. Linesman Swede Knox took over Shick’s duties for the final two periods.