Kings Only Get ‘L’ for Effort

Sometimes, effort doesn’t win games.

The Kings learned this Tuesday night as their hustle and third-period rally fell short against the sharp-shooting Pittsburgh Penguins at the Forum.

Despite a strong game from goalie Byron Dafoe and an aggressive, hard-hitting team effort, the Kings played catch-up all night before 11,558 and lost, 5-3, to the Penguins and their $18-million line of Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis.

After defeating the Colorado Avalanche by two goals Saturday, the Kings spotted Pittsburgh a three-goal lead before rallying behind third-period goals by Eddie Olczyk and Rob Blake to close within 4-3. But the Penguins put the game away on Jagr’s empty-net goal in the final seconds.

The Kings’ main problem was that they lacked the scoring punch to keep pace early with the Penguins, who stretched their unbeaten streak to 6-0-2. To try to counter Pittsburgh’s primary line, Robinson teamed Dan Bylsma with Olczyk and Kevin Stevens.

“[Lemieux and Co.] are a line that likes to feast on other team’s mistakes,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “That’s what we did, especially in the first period when we watched them instead of playing, and then when there was a breakdown, [Penguin goalie Ken] Wregget was there to make the save.”

The Kings, who outshot Pittsburgh, 36-25, had their chances against Wregget. But whether it was a breakaway attempt by Ray Ferraro or an open shot from the slot by Steven Finn, the Kings came up short in the first two periods.

With Brad Smyth scoring their only goal, the Kings trailed, 4-1, going into the final period, unable to answer Pittsburgh’s high-scoring line of Lemieux, Jagr and Francis, who combined for three goals and three assists.

It was Pittsburgh’s first victory in nine years at the Forum.

The Penguins’ line of Petr Nedved, Tomas Sandstrom and Alex Stojanov produced the game’s first goal.

The play was started after a weak clearing pass by the Kings. Sandstrom made a perfect drop pass near the blue line to Nedved, who then beat Dafoe from the right circle with a shot into the upper-right corner of the goal to give Pittsburgh a 1-0 lead 9:36 into the game.

The Kings, who are 3-12 when an opponent scores first this season, did not immediately fall apart. They came close to tying the score a couple of times with Stevens having the best chance with a slashing attempt that was blocked by Wregget.

Pittsburgh made the Kings pay for not taking advantage of their scoring opportunities with 1:02 remaining in the first period when Lemieux scored a power-play goal on a cross-ice assist from defenseman Kevin Hatcher. Lemieux, who now has 13 goals, slapped the puck from deep on the left wing off the skate of King defenseman Sean O’Donnell and into the net to give the Penguins a 2-0 lead.

Any chance of a Kings’ comeback ended quickly in the second period when Hatcher assisted on a goal by Dave Roche, whose shot from the slot slipped between Dafoe’s pads at the 2:39 mark.

After Smyth’s rebound goal cut the lead to 3-1 at the 5:18 mark, Jagr and Lemieux teamed for a perfectly executed scoring play five minutes later. Jagr took a pass from his linemate and beat Dafoe with a clever fake for his 28th goal of the season and stretched his goal-scoring streak to nine games.

In the third period, the Kings closed within 4-2 on Olczyk’s eighth goal. They outshot the Penguins in the period, 15-10, but the late salvo was not good enough as they fell to 3-7 in their last 10 games.