Coyotes Go to Work on Kings

Despite winning only twice since the All-Star break, the Kings had played opponents tough over the last month. Close losses to playoff-bound teams such as Colorado and Dallas proved that.

But playing 15 games in four weeks can take a toll on an injury-depleted group, so Tuesday the hobbled Kings decided to take the night off. Too bad they still had to play Phoenix--and the Coyotes weren’t sending out sympathy cards.

Spurred by back-to-back goals by Kris King and Jim McKenzie within a 24-second span in the first period, Phoenix crushed the Kings, 6-1, before 15,828 at America West Arena.

McKenzie, who entered with only one goal in 47 games, added two more goals for the first three-goal game of his career.

“I was just going hard to the net and I was at the right place at the right time,” said McKenzie, who has not scored more than five goals in a season and has 25 in 408 games in his eight-year NHL career. “I did a little bit of everything tonight. I even blocked a shot.”

Said King Coach Larry Robinson: “We gave [McKenzie] three wide-open chances. I probably could have scored on them.”

Also impressive for the Coyotes was goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, who improved to 19-25-3. Khabibulin made 27 saves as the Kings made him look like second coming of Patrick Roy. The Kings’ only goal was scored by Matt Johnson, his first of the season, in the second period.

Phoenix, which won for the first time in three games against the Kings this season, has now won four of its last five games. Mike Gartner and Darrin Shannon added goals and Mike Stapleton had three assists.

The Kings’ are winless in seven games and 2-10-3 since the All-Star break.

From the opening faceoff, King goaltender Byron Dafoe was under attack. He made several saves before King put Phoenix ahead with an unassisted score at 5:32, his third goal of the season.

McKenzie then gave the Coyotes a two-goal lead at 5:56 when from the slot he deflected in a slap shot by Jayson More. Phoenix took a 3-0 lead at 14:37 when McKenzie knocked in a rebound and a 4-0 lead when Gartner scored on a breakaway with 1:46 left in the period. Over their last five games, the Coyotes have outscored opponents, 13-1, in the first period.

“We stressed before the game that they had been coming out hard in their last four games,” said Dafoe, who made 31 saves in dropping to 11-11-3. “Maybe we thought about it too much.

“The way things have been going for us lately, getting down 2-0 in the first 10 minutes did not help us emotionally on our bench. Obviously, that carried over to the rest of the period. Being down, 4-0, after one [period, it’s] tough to dig a hole that deep and come out of it.”

The Kings tried to extricate themselves in the second period when Johnson scored on a rebound of a shot by Nathan LaFayette at 12:40. But, the Coyotes shoveled on more dirt with McKenzie’s third goal of the game at 14:40 and Shannon’s ninth of the season at 15:33.

Phoenix maintained the lead the rest of the way. The Kings were outshot, 37-28, and were 0 for 4 on power plays.

“This is your meat-and-potatoes time . . . when you get an excellent reading on the type of players you have and the type of players you need,” Robinson said. “It’s also a great time for us to take a good look at some of our guys to see if they will fit or not. And, we’re getting a very rude awakening on a lot of reads on a lot of players.”