It Takes Only Six Minutes to Beat Kings

It would be generous to say that the Kings lost merely because of one isolated first-period lapse against the Winnipeg Jets.

Except that the lapse lasted for 6:03 as the Jets scored four goals on five shots on their way to a 5-4 victory against the Kings on Wednesday night before a Forum crowd of 12,675.

Certainly the Kings (14-16-9) managed to make it interesting by pulling within a goal in the third period, but they can’t keep relying on a consistent need to have to pull off last-second heroics.

Given a power play with 1:27 remaining, the Kings pulled goaltender Kelly Hrudey for a six-on-four advantage and nearly tied it by hitting the Jets with a barrage of shots. Seconds before the power play, King left wing Dimitri Khristich had Winnipeg goaltender Tim Cheveldae beaten but hit the left post. Later, the much-criticized Cheveldae robbed King defenseman Marty McSorley with a glove save with 2.9 seconds remaining.

Which means the current King slump continues. They have recorded only one win in their last eight games, going 1-4-3.

King Coach Larry Robinson blamed this loss on the shoddy first period, saying: “It killed us. We were running around. We got a little bit out of position defensively. They were coming late [into the play] and getting potshots at Kelly. And we weren’t clearing the rebounds, either.

“We had enough chances the last two periods when we decided not to run around and to play our game. You can’t give a team five goals, especially when you get off to a 2-0 start.”

And Winnipeg (17-19-3) has been woeful on the road with only five victories all season, having been mired in a six-game road losing streak. The Jets hadn’t won on the road since Nov. 22 when they beat Ottawa, 3-1. In that six-game road losing streak, the Jets were outscored, 30-14, and hadn’t scored more than three goals in a game.

“We’ve had some crazy games here for some reason,” Winnipeg Coach Terry Simpson said. “In the first period tonight, it seemed every shot went into the net.”

So the Jets managed to get well at the Fourm and pulled into a three-way tie with the Kings and the Blues for fifth place in the Western Conference. Wednesday was a textbook King-Jet game, marked by a paucity of defense and fast-breaking offense.

The game quieted considerably after a wild first period, in which the Kings and Jets combined for 33 shots and eight goals.

How bad was it for the Kings in the first 20 minutes? Defenseman Sean O’Donnell was on for all five Winnipeg goals, though two came on the power play, and an ailing McSorley was on the ice for four of the five. Right wing Rick Tocchet was on for three of the five.

The Kings actually led, 2-0, within the first 6:18 on goals by Tony Granato (12th of the season) on the power play and rookie right wing Vitali Yachmenev (13th) at even strength. Wayne Gretzky scored in the first period for his 11th of the season and also had two assists and Eric Lacroix picked up his seventh of the season, in the third period.

But what helped jump-start the Jets in the first period was the Kings’ continued proclivity for taking foolish penalties as McSorley went off for interference at 6:50 and Steve Finn for tripping at 7:24. The Jets needed only 12 seconds into the ensuing five-on-three to score their first goal, by Alexei Zhamnov, and the rookie defenseman Deron Quint scored his first of two goals only 45 seconds later, at 8:21 to tie it at 2-2.

Quint added another goal, his fifth of the season, at 11:20 and rookie forward Shane Doan made it 4-2 with a wraparound past Hrudey, at 13:39.