Calgary Extends a Kings’ Trend

Maybe there is something about playing back-to-back games after all.

One day after dominating a streaking Edmonton team, the Kings came out flat Thursday night and lost, 2-0, to the Calgary Flames--a team that had lost by nine goals to the Oilers only two days earlier.

“There’s always the fatigue factor, but everybody has to do it,” forward Eddie Olczyk said of the Kings, who defeated Edmonton, 5-1, Wednesday night. “It’s just a matter of fighting through it and finding a way to get the second game. Tonight, we got off to a slow start and we couldn’t get it done.”

Behind rookie goalie Dwayne Roloson, who gained a shutout victory in his first home start, Calgary (10-13-2) bounced back from its worst defeat of the season to win for the first time in five games before 15,367 at the Saddledome.

The Kings (10-11-3) had only three power plays in suffering their fifth shutout of the season and dropped to 0-5-1 on the tail end of back-to-back games this season despite a solid effort by King goalie Stephane Fiset.

In losing his fifth consecutive start, Fiset (4-9-3) played well, stopping 27 of 29 shots. The only goals he gave up came on standout efforts by Jonas Hogland and Theoren Fleury in the first and second periods.

“My job is to make big saves and to try and keep the team in the game,” said Fiset, who held the Flames scoreless in a 0-0 tie at the Forum last month. “It’s always frustrating when you don’t win, no matter how well you played. The other goalie just played a big game too.”

The Flames, whose 10-1 loss to Edmonton on Tuesday concluded a two-game sweep by the Oilers, jumped on top of the Kings early and held fast in front of Roloson.

“It was a huge win for us after getting embarrassed at home in front our fans like we did,” Fleury said. “I couldn’t wait until tonight’s game to come. I don’t think that I left the house the last two days without thinking about what I and the team had to do.”

Dave Gagner, who has scored a point in six consecutive games, got things started when he outskated the Kings’ defense down the right side of the ice and fed Hogland outside the left post for the first score only 1:28 into the game. On the play, Fiset was lured to the right side of the net by Gagner’s charge but didn’t get much defensive help in stopping Hogland’s sixth goal.

The Kings were fortunate to trail only 1-0 after the first period as Calgary kept the action in the Kings’ zone and outshot them, 16-2. Only several outstanding saves by Fiset kept the score close.

“All back-to-back games are not easy, but that’s really not an excuse,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “Not the way we played the first period. We got outhustled and outplayed, but with all that we were still in the game.”

Calgary continued to force the action early in the second period and the payoff came at the 6:48 mark when Fleury faked Fiset in the crease and beat him with a backhand shot to make the score, 2-0. By the time Fleury scored his 12th goal, Calgary had outshot the Kings, 21-4.

The Kings stepped up their attack from that point, but Roloson (1-1-1) was up to the task.

“We knew that they were going to be ready after losing like they did [against Edmonton],” Olczyk said. “[Roloson] played well, but we just didn’t test him enough. When we finally did, he made some big saves when they needed them.”

Added captain Rob Blake, who grew up with Roloson in Simcoe, Ontario: “Under the circumstances, this was just a huge win for him to come in and get a shutout, especially with that kind of pressure.”

Next up for the Kings, who are 5-8-2 on the road, will be their rubber match with the Chicago Blackhawks at the Forum on Saturday. The last time they met, each team was fined $5,000 for a late third period brawl.