Kings Battle Back, Then Lose in Overtime

The Kings were so close to getting away with one point, and had a glove out to grab another when the door slammed shut Thursday night at CoreStates Center.

Thirty-three seconds of overtime rendered a stirring third-period comeback moot, courtesy of Flyer center Rod Brind’Amour’s second goal of the season, which gave Philadelphia a 5-4 victory over the Kings before 18,110.

It begged the philosophical question: Is it better to lose in a blowout or in a heart-wrenching close call?

These days, the Kings (1-3) need all the encouragement they can get, so they at least took some solace in having rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the final half of the third period on goals by defenseman Doug Zmolek and forwards Brent Grieve and Ray Ferraro.

Having shed the bad habits of the first two periods for the last half of the third, the Kings reverted to form in overtime. The game-winner came on, what else, an outnumbered attack. King forward Dimitri Khristich was the third man high and went to take Mikael Renberg on the left wing, thinking King defenseman Rob Blake would then cover Brind’Amour in the slot.

It didn’t happen and Brind’Amour was left all alone for an easy goal, beating goaltender Byron Dafoe with a wrist shot on the stick side. It was Brind’Amour’s 500th NHL point.

Khristich, who had two assists, blamed himself.

“I was beating the third guy coming in the zone, and I thought I would help the defense,” he said. “I turned around and picked up the third guy. I thought if I would go, Blakey would switch. But it was too confusing. I should have played it simple.”

But that was far from the only mistake of the night as the Kings lost their third consecutive game. The Flyers (2-1) broke it open in the second period, scoring two goals in a 20-second span early in the period, turning a 1-0 game into a 3-0 lead on goals by defenseman Karl Dykhuis and rookie forward Dainius Zubrus.

“I think our biggest problem is patience,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “When the other team gets a little bit of pressure, we lose our patience and start running all over the place. We panic. We don’t keep our composure.

“I try not to focus on the first 40 minutes, it doesn’t take long to focus on that. There was no effort. Too much standing around, not enough effort. The best line was [Ian] Laperriere’s line because they worked their tails off.”

Laperriere scored the other goal for the Kings, his second of the season, and was one of the few players with some jump for the whole game. He centered a line of left wing Barry Potomski and Dan Bylsma. Another effective unit, later on, was Ferraro centering Khristich and Yanic Perreault.

“The quicker our team learns we have to be a blue-collar team, the better off we’re going to be,” Ferraro said. “If we think we can move the puck with the best teams in the league, and be fancy, we’re going to get clobbered. That’s a lesson that maybe was learned tonight.”

Ferraro, who scored his first goal of the season, admitted he had been pressing, putting pressure on himself for not scoring in the season’s first three games. He missed an easy chance against San Jose on Sunday, which could have given the Kings a two-goal lead and did not convert on a third-period breakaway at 8:05 of the third, as Flyer goaltender Garth Snow blocked it.

But Ferraro kept at it and used his speed to break free to finally get his first goal of the season, with 4:59 remaining in regulation to tie it, 4-4. Then, in overtime, the Kings slipped back to the form of the first 40 minutes.

“It does take time to sink in--the quicker we learn it the better off we’re going to be,” Ferraro said. “It’s like when you are in school, if it’s going to take you three years to learn math, you’re going to be in second grade for the whole year.

“We need to go ahead and realize what type of hockey club we have here. We have a team that can work hard. We have some guys that score some goals. But we don’t have Eric Lindros or a Mario Lemieux, guys who can carry a team by themselves.”