For Kings, Bloom Is Off Rosa

Pavel Rosa got the call in Marina del Rey for one reason.

“He’s a scorer,” said Ray Ferraro, who centered Rosa’s line in his NHL debut.

Rosa was just that Thursday night, getting two goals in the Kings’ 5-4 overtime loss to the New York Islanders at the Great Western Forum.

Maybe he can sleep now.

“I’ve had butterflies all day. I’ve been waiting for that call ever since I became aware that there was an NHL,” Rosa said of the Kings telling him to report to them as quickly as he could and, oh, bring his ability to get open for a shot along.

“I couldn’t believe it.”

Rosa’s offense wasn’t enough to counter the Kings’ leaky goaltending and Bryan Berard’s goal at two minutes of overtime that gave New York the victory.

Berard followed Mariusz Czerkawski’s shot after Czerkawski hit the post.

“We got what we deserved,” Ferraro said. “We were in position to win a game we didn’t deserve to win because we stunk. We made bad passes, made bad decisions. That was a game we needed to win, because they didn’t play well either. But we deserved what we got.”

Islander Coach Mike Milbury agreed.

“Ugly, ugly, ugly . . . both ways,” he said. “Too many turnovers, too many poor decisions.”

King goalie Jamie Storr struggled all night, missing Eric Brewer’s two-hopper from the blue line for the Islanders’ first goal; slowing but not stopping Ted Donato’s goal in the second period; and finding his glove had sprung a leak when he got it on Barry Richter’s shot, impeding it but not preventing it from trickling into the net from well out for New York’s fourth goal.

“That fourth goal was totally my fault,” Storr said. “You feel like you let the team down. I saw their faces, and I knew I had let them down. The fifth goal, that shouldn’t even have happened. We should have won, 4-3, and shouldn’t have even needed to go to overtime.”

Rosa, 21, had four goals and 13 points with the Long Beach Ice Dogs, where he was sent after training camp to get his game and his head back in shape. He had missed most of last season because of a concussion suffered in an exhibition game against the Colorado Avalanche.

Mainly, he lost a year of his young career because he wasn’t wearing a $2 mouth piece when he was hit.

All that is behind him now, as is an NHL debut well beyond his wildest dreams before a crowd announced as 9,872, about 2,000 more than showed up.

His first goal earned the Kings a 1-1 tie and came when he converted a pass from Vladimir Tsyplakov at 14:42 of the first period. Rosa was hanging around the net at the time, two seconds after a King power play had expired, and slipped the puck past Islander goalie Tommy Salo with a twist of his stick blade.

“That was a goal-scorer’s goal,” Ferraro said. “Guys like him seem to find a hole and put the puck there. He found it and scored. That kind of thing is in-bred. You don’t learn it.”

Rosa’s final goal gave them a 4-3 lead when he intercepted a pass by Berard at the blue line, skated in alone and faked Salo off his feet before flipping it over him and into the net.

“I was waiting for Tommy Salo to commit,” Rosa said. “Most of the time I wait to see what the goalie does.”

The porous King defense prevented that from being enough.

They had taken a 2-1 lead on Luc Robitaille’s power-play goal with 1:36 to play in the first period, countered by Donato’s goal in the second.

Steve Duchesne scored his second goal of the season to give the Kings a 3-2 lead, converting a shot by Robitaille that deflected off Craig Johnson’s back in front of the net directly to Duchesne.

Rosa came up to the Kings to take the roster space vacated when Eric Lacroix was injured, but “he’s not up here for any definite time,” Coach Larry Robinson said.

“We’ve got to get some goals. That’s the kid’s forte. We’re not going to expect him to light up the tree all at once though.”

The Kings got more than that Thursday night, seeing Rosa light up the scoreboard twice.

And seeing it not be enough to beat the Islanders, who have a modest two-game winning streak after losing seven games in a row.