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Robinson Is Left Fuming at Kings

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Coach Larry Robinson declared it was his fault the Kings left the FleetCenter on Monday with a 4-4 tie against the Boston Bruins instead of a victory, but goaltender Stephane Fiset insisted he should be blamed for not stopping Boston’s last two goals.

Although there was blame to share, there were also several praiseworthy moments in a performance that enabled the Kings (6-6-3) to complete a 2-0-2 trip and extend their unbeaten streak to 2-0-3 overall.

Robinson was upset over his players’ defensive carelessness late in the game, which led to Mattias Timander’s tying goal with 1:04 to play in the third period and goalie Bill Ranford replaced by an extra skater. He was even more furious at their scrambly, disjointed effort in overtime. The Bruins outshot the Kings, 7-1, in those five minutes and might have won the game on a point-blank shot by Adam Oates if Fiset’s left toe was a half-inch shorter.

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“It was a great road trip. It could have been an even better road trip,” Robinson said. “I’m mad at myself because I should have gone with the guys that I knew would do the job, instead of with the veterans. As of now, I’m the coach, and we’re going to address that when we get back.

“If we would have played the way I told them to play, we might have won. But some guys think they know more than the coaching staff. There was so much panic. Everybody was trying to tell everybody else what to do instead of doing their own job.”

Robinson wouldn’t identify the target of his anger, but the line of Kevin Stevens, Ed Olczyk and Ray Ferraro got a lot of playing time in overtime and spent much of it watching Bruins zoom all over the ice. Defensemen Rob Blake and Steven Finn, the only other veterans on the team, were on the ice for Boston’s first, third (during a power play) and fourth goals. The Bruins (4-5-3) skated in on Fiset unhindered and the Kings let them take up residence around the net for 37 shots that kept Fiset busy.

“I think [Robinson] is unhappy when you give up that many chances in OT,” said Stevens, who took six shots--including one that hit the post and rolled across the goalmouth--for a season total of 50 and a shooting percentage of 4%. “He was thinking maybe we should have had two points. . . .

“This was a good road trip for this team. We’re a young team and hopefully we learned that a lot of things can happen. Good teams win on the road. You’re going to win your share at home, but you have to win on the road.”

They seemed headed for a victory when Ferraro converted a long rebound of an Olczyk shot 46 seconds into the game, but the Bruins responded at 2:48 when Ted Donato followed up his own shot. Jozef Stumpel beat Fiset on a wrist shot from a sharp angle at 4:58 of the second period, but the Kings matched that at 5:30 on a nice deke and backhander by Vladimir Tsyplakov.

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Stumpel gave Boston a 3-2 lead at 4:49 of the third period with a shot that squirted through Fiset’s legs, but the Kings came back again. Blake’s shot from the point snaked through traffic at 10:30 during a power play, his first goal since Oct. 12, 1995, and Kai Nurminen made it 4-3 at 15:25 off a centering pass from Dimitri Khristich.

But the Bruins delighted the crowd of 13,291 when Oates won a faceoff from Yanic Perreault, Rick Tocchet grabbed the loose puck and fed Timander for a shot that hit Fiset’s arm and popped up and over him. Blake waved at it but couldn’t bat it away.

Fiset was spectacular in overtime, but he refused to accept plaudits. “I guess I have to do something good in the game,” he said. “In my mind, I think I gave two bad goals [the third and fourth]. . . . It was my fault we didn’t win this game.”

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