Zmolek Heartbeat Again a Problem

For the second time this month, defenseman Doug Zmolek was hospitalized because of an irregular heartbeat. He did not play in Monday afternoon’s 2-1 loss to Dallas at the Forum.

Zmolek, 26, felt a shortening of breath Monday morning and told King trainer Pete Demers, who drove him to Centinela Hospital. Zmolek will remain there until at least today while doctors try to get his heartbeat back to normal with medication or electric shock.

This is the fifth heart-related problem for Zmolek and the third since he made his NHL debut with the San Jose Sharks in the 1992-93 season. He also had an irregular heartbeat once while with Dallas and had a similar problem on Feb. 3 when he left after the first period during a game at Calgary.

“What he has is not considered life threatening,” said Centinela’s Dr. John Moe. “But, we’re definitely going to have reanalyze it at this point.”

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Forward Matt Johnson returned from a four-game league suspension against Dallas and was called for a 10-minute misconduct penalty for a scuffle with Benoit Hogue, who received the same penalty.

Forward Yanic Perreault sat out his sixth consecutive game because of a rib injury, and left wing Vladimir Tsyplakov sat out his second game in a row because of a groin injury. Defenseman Jan Vopat did not play because of an ankle injury.