Sloppy Kings Turn Last-Second Loss Into a 5-1 Rout

The Florida Panthers scored in the final second of both the first and second periods Sunday night and continued their mastery at home with a 5-1 victory over the road-weary Kings.

The Panthers, winners of three in a row, are 10-1-1 in their last 12 home games and 7-0-1 in their last eight at home. Florida goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck had 28 saves and is 10-1-1 at the Miami Arena, which was sold out for the first time this season.

The Kings have lost four consecutive games on this five-game trip, which concludes tonight against Tampa Bay.

In the waning seconds of the first period, Tony Granato’s clearing pass was picked off by Robert Svehla at the blue line. His slap shot was blocked by goaltender Byron Dafoe, but Stu Barnes flicked in the rebound with 0.7 seconds remaining for his ninth goal. Scott Mellanby scored his team-leading 14th goal on a rebound earlier in the period.

With time running out in the second period, Jody Hull took off on a breakaway, and beat substitute goalie Kelly Hrudey with 0.1 seconds remaining to give the Panthers a 5-1 lead. It was Hull’s seventh goal of the season and his fourth in three games.

The Kings cut the deficit to 2-1 at 4:14 of the second period, when Steve Finn cut off a clearing pass and one-timed it from the slot past Vanbiesbrouck for his first goal of the season.

The Panthers regained their two-goal lead when Mike Hough crossed the puck to Brian Skrudland, who swept it past a sprawled Defoe. Less than two minutes later Rob Niedermayer’s slap shot from the slot made it 4-1. His 11th goal also knocked Dafoe from the nets and Hrudey finished the game.