Kings Baffle Before Ultimately Losing

Sooner or later the Kings will realize that good hockey teams do not take time off during games and still hope to win.

Two days after playing their most complete game of the season--a four-goal victory over Philadelphia--a lackluster start came back to cost the Kings when the Edmonton Oilers escaped with a 3-2 victory on a gift overtime goal by Todd Marchant Sunday night before an announced crowd of 11,279 at the Forum.

After spotting Edmonton two power-play goals early in the first period, the Kings fought back to send the game into overtime on scores by Luc Robitaille and Philippe Boucher.

But in overtime, the Kings did not capitalize on their scoring chances and blew an opportunity to finish with at least a tie because of faulty communication around their own net.

With the puck deep in the Kings’ zone, goaltender Stephane Fiset lost his stick and while communicating with his teammates, Marchant skated free to score on a wraparound with 1:55 left in overtime. It was Edmonton’s first shot on goal in the final 21 minutes of the game.

On the final scoring play, the Kings momentarily had the puck behind their own goal but Sean O’Donnell and Sandy Moger fell to the ice, leaving the puck for Marchant. While this was going on, Ian Laperriere handed his stick to Fiset and Rob Blake picked up Fiset’s stick. Marchant scored his goal when Blake yelled to Fiset to switch sticks.

“I should have kept playing without the stick,” said Fiset, who after giving up two goals in Edmonton’s first six shots had stopped 20 in a row before Marchant’s winner. “It’s my fault, I should have watched the puck all the time.”

Whoever gets the blame, King Coach Larry Robinson was not happy afterward.

“We had control of the puck but instead of worrying about getting the puck out [of the King zone], we were worrying about getting Steph his stick,” said Robinson, who did not hide his displeasure with the Kings’ mental preparation.

“There’s no excuse for a club to start the way that we did. Totally, unprepared to start the game. It’s not that they didn’t know what they were supposed to do and they weren’t told what the other team was going to do. They knew exactly and instead of doing exactly what they were told, they wanted to do it their own way.”

Instead of making a statement early against Edmonton, the Kings quickly gave the Oilers the upper hand with consecutive penalties on Boucher and Garry Galley, resulting in a five-on-three Edmonton power play.

Edmonton’s first goal came when Ryan Smyth was able to sneak the puck under Fiset’s backside at 2:39. The Oilers then jumped out to a two-goal lead 47 seconds later when Boris Mironov got credit for a power-play goal on a deflected shot to put Edmonton ahead, 2-0, at 3:26.

The Kings’ continued to flounder for the rest of the first period and Edmonton, which had the first six shots on goal in the game, took a 2-0 lead and a 19-10 shots on goal advantage into the dressing room.

Between periods, Robinson ripped into his team and threatened to take away ice time if some players did not increase their effort. His yelling must have worked because for the next 40 minutes the Kings dominated play.

Early in the second period, the Kings had two power-play chances but Edmonton goaltender Curtis Joseph made key saves on quality shots by Sandy Moger, Blake and Boucher. But on the Kings’ third power play of the period, Robitaille finally got through when he scored on a rebound following a shot by Blake at 17:10 to cut the Oilers’ lead to 2-1.

The Kings were able to tie the game 8:04 into the third period when Boucher scored from the slot following good passes from Laperriere and Moger.

*

Islanders: 5

Mighty Ducks: 2

Little offense, poor defense and shaky goaltending lead to loss to New York. C8