Kings’ Hopes Flicker : Hockey: Arturs Irbe continues mastery in San Jose’s 4-0 rout that puts Kings two points out of playoff spot with three games left.

Perhaps there were two painfully obvious signs after the first period that the Kings’ playoff chances would dwindle by the end of the night as they lost to the San Jose Sharks, 4-0.

One was the loud chants--Irbe! Irbe!--from the sellout crowd of 17,190 Friday night at San Jose Arena, signaling that Arturs Irbe, the tiny acrobatic goaltender, was showing his usual shutout form against the Kings.

Next was the score after the first period. Although the Sharks led, 1-0, the Kings have not won a game this season in which they trailed after the first period, going 0-16-1.

Irbe and the Sharks made it 0-17-1 and took over the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference with 39 points, a one-point lead over the ninth-place Edmonton Oilers. The Kings (14-22-9) are two points behind at 37, tied for 10th place with the Winnipeg Jets.

It has come to this: If the Kings lose to the Mighty Ducks and the Sharks beat St. Louis on Sunday, the Kings will miss the playoffs for the second consecutive season. There are three games remaining, one at home and two on the road. And Friday was the Kings’ seventh consecutive road defeat.

Also hurting the Kings’ chances in the playoff race are their number of victories--14--which is the first tiebreaker. Every other team vying for the final spot has more victories. The Sharks are 18-24-3, the Oilers are 17-24-4 and the Jets and Mighty Ducks each have 15 victories.

If the Kings fail to reach the playoffs, there is a long list of reasons. But two were on exhibit Friday night--an inability to solve Irbe and a failure to generate any sustained offensive attack.

Irbe, who faced 29 shots, recorded his third shutout of the season against the Kings. The Kings, scoring only two goals in their last four road games, have been shut out four times this season. And Irbe has a shutout streak of 120 minutes 18 seconds against the Kings.

Leading the Sharks was center Craig Janney with one goal and one assist and forward Kevin Miller with two points, an empty-netter with 1:35 remaining and a first-period assist on Janney’s goal.

Janney, who recorded his sixth of the season, scored the Sharks’ first goal on a breakaway at 9:34, taking advantage of a Wayne Gretzky turnover in the neutral zone.

San Jose added two more goals in the second period, by Ray Whitney at 12:23 and Ulf Dahlen at 18:33. Both goals came on miscues by King defenseman Darryl Sydor, who suffered through a particularly difficult night.

In fact, the defensive pairing of Sydor and Michel Petit was on for the first three Shark goals.

One of the Kings’ better scoring chances came in the third period when defenseman Rob Blake hit the post with about seven minutes remaining. Blake played despite suffering a slightly pulled groin Wednesday against Detroit.

The Kings nearly had a chance to get back in it in the second period when they trailed, 2-0. Sydor launched a shot from the left point and it deflected off forward Eric Lacroix. Irbe jumped up in the air and gloved it, then fell back into the goal.

It was reviewed by the video replay judge, who ruled it no goal.

That, in a sense, was the way it went for the Kings.

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King Notes

The saga of right wing Rick Tocchet’s strained lower back continued as he sat out Friday’s game. Tocchet, who has not played in 11 of the last 12 games, was supposed to join the Kings in San Jose on Thursday night but apparently did not feel fit enough to play and stayed home in Los Angeles. Since injuring his back on April 1, Tocchet has played in one game--against the Sharks on April 16. . . . Defenseman Denis Tsygurov, a healthy scratch Wednesday against Detroit, was back in the lineup on Friday, replacing defenseman Rob Cowie. . . . San Jose goaltender Arturs Irbe presumably shaved his stick to fit the legal requirements against the Kings on Friday night. The Mighty Ducks on Wednesday caught Irbe using an illegal stick--the blade was about a millimeter wider than the 3 1/2 inches allowed. Irbe said the extra millimeter was mostly tape, used to prevent the wooden stick blade from splintering. “I was surprised, not upset,” Irbe said later. He then sarcastically guessed what the Ducks might do in the future, saying: “Maybe they will say the width of my chest and shoulders is illegal, or maybe my helmet is too wide.”