Blackhawks Get Chances, Make Most of Them to Beat Kings, 5-3

There may not have been any bench-clearing brawls, nor any sticks waved in any fights, but Saturday night’s game between the Kings and the Chicago Blackhawks definitely was not lacking in intensity.

The Kings lost, 5-3, in a game filled with hard hits and minor scuffles before a sellout crowd of 16,005 at the Forum.

Led by Tony Amonte’s third career hat trick, the Blackhawks ended a two-game losing streak and a six-game trip with a hard-fought win over the Kings, who gave their fans a better showing than they did in their last home game--which they lost, 6-0, to the Detroit Red Wings.

“The difference was that Chicago had some chances and put them in,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “We had some but we didn’t.”

The Kings entered as the NHL’s No. 2 penalty-killing team, but gave up three power-play goals to the Blackhawks. In a game that had several questionable penalties and plenty that were not called, the Kings at times panicked against Chicago, which was three for seven on power plays.

“Every little mistake we made went into the net,” said Robinson, whose Kings have lost five of their last six games.

The last time these teams played each other earlier this month, a fight near the end of the third period erupted with Chicago’s Jim Cummins and Bob Probert combining for 52 penalty minutes. Both teams, however, were fined $5,000 each as Probert escaped suspension despite waving a stick at the Kings’ Matt Johnson during the brawl.

The key goal for Chicago came midway in the third period with the Kings trailing, 4-3. Blackhawk center James Black put the game away when he whacked in a shot from the slot past King goalie Byron Dafoe at the 8:12 mark.

A double-minor penalty on Yanic Perreault led to Amonte’s first goal at the 5:20 mark. With teammate Bob Probert battling the Kings’ Sean O’Donnell in front of the Kings’ goal, Amonte was able to whack in a rebound following a blue-line shot by Chris Chelios to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

The Kings, however, responded with their 15th power-play goal when Ray Ferraro scored at 6:38. Rob Blake’s shot from the blue line started the play as Kevin Stevens followed with a rebound whack from the right post that led to Ferraro’s team-high 10th goal.

The Kings tied the game at 2-2 on Eddie Olczyk’s seventh goal of the season on a rebound of a breakaway shot by Perreault at 2:29 into the second period.

The Blackhawks answered with two consecutive goals of their own, one by Eric Daze on a power play and the other by Amonte following a cross-ice assist from Alexei Zhamnov. But the Kings got back into the game with 1:11 left in the second period when Blake took in a pass from Dimitri Khristich and whacked a shot through Belfour’s legs to cut the Blackhawks’ lead to 4-3.

The Blackhawks played without Brent Sutter and Denis Savard, who were given the night off for minor injuries.