Kings Make It Close, but Ottawa Wins, 3-2

If the Kings had played the entire game the way they did late in the third period against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night, they probably wouldn’t be searching today for ways to end their first two-game losing streak of the season.

After twice spotting Ottawa a two-goal lead, the Kings made the game interesting but saw their dramatic comeback taken away by a video goal judge in a 3-2 loss to the Senators before 14,108 at the Corel Centre.

“They really would have stole a point,” Ottawa Coach Jacques Martin said of the Kings, who had a goal by Jozef Stumpel with 6.7 seconds left disallowed because Luc Robitaille’s right foot was ruled in the crease before the puck. “Because I really thought that we outplayed them.”

Ottawa did dominate most of the game and held a 3-1 lead when the Kings pulled goaltender Stephane Fiset with 1:25 left in favor of an extra attacker. Rob Blake cut the Kings’ deficit to a goal with 54 seconds remaining and then Yanic Perreault made a stellar defensive play by skating down the Senators’ Bruce Gardiner to prevent him from scoring into an empty net with 14 seconds left.

When play continued, Robitaille led the final charge and dropped a pass to Vladimir Tsyplakov, who passed to Stumpel for what appeared to be the tying goal. It did not count, however, because Robitaille was in the crease a fraction of a second too soon.

“I stopped and I saw the puck go by me,” said Robitaille, who finished with two assists. “I know it’s the rule but it’s frustrating.”

What really is bothering the Kings is that they suddenly have lost the spark they had when they concluded the month of November with a 7-3-1 run.

For the second night in a row, the Kings failed to make enough plays to lead to goals. They were shut out by Montreal, 2-0, on Wednesday, and their scoreless streak reached five periods before Sandy Moger scored early in the third against the Senators.

Ottawa, which is only 7-8-1 at home, received goals from Daniel Alfredsson, Alexandre Daigle and Shawn McEachern, and goaltender Damian Rhodes made 25 saves to defeat the Kings for the first time since Oct. 26, 1995. The Kings defeated Ottawa, 7-4, at the Forum in October.

“It’s mind-boggling that we can play so well for a short period of time and then play so poorly for the rest of it,” said King Coach Larry Robinson, whose team is now 4-6-5 on the road. “All it comes down to is effort. If you give the effort, you’re going to get results. Nobody is going to give you anything in this league.”

Alfredsson put Ottawa ahead, 1-0, 13:38 into the first period when he beat Fiset from the top of the crease. Shaun Van Allen had kept the play in the Kings’ zone, but it was a pass by Daigle that led to Alfredsson’s goal.

The Senators’ domination continued in the second period as they outshot the Kings, 17-7. Ottawa was helped by three minor penalties against the Kings, Steve McKenna accounting for two of them.

The Kings played well in keeping Ottawa scoreless in four man-advantage situations, but the Senators did get one power-play goal when Daigle scored at 16:44 of the second period. It was the fifth consecutive game in which the Kings have given up a power-play score.

“We’re struggling offensively right now and we can’t have to kill seven or eight penalties every night, that’s basically a big problem for us right now,” King defenseman Philippe Boucher said. “We don’t have the [penalty-killing] like we used to have last year [which finished third in the NHL]. We’re doing a good job, but it seems that having to kill so many is putting us in a hole every game. It’s hard to come back.”

The Kings, who are averaging 22.4 penalty minutes a game to rank third in the league, had seven penalties for 20 minutes against Ottawa.

The Kings are also having problems in other areas. Their power play was zero for four against the Senators and is one for 31 in the last seven games.

“If we score on our power plays it would really help right now,” Robitaille said. “We’re going to have to really go back to basics. Bring it back to where we shoot, shoot, shoot and shoot. We’re getting the chances but we’re not finishing and that’s the bottom line.”

The Kings will complete their three-game trip Saturday at Toronto.