Kings Heat Up in Third With Four-Goal Barrage

For two periods Tuesday night, King Coach Larry Robinson watched in disgust as his team failed to mount any consistent offense against the Calgary Flames at the Great Western Forum.

Then the Kings responded with a four-goal third period to skate away with a thrilling, 4-3 come-from-behind victory over the Flames before an announced crowd of 10,367.

Vladimir Tsyplakov completed the rally with two goals in the final 1:37 as the Kings (20-19-8) won their third consecutive game and remained in sixth position in the Western Conference playoff race.

Tsyplakov scored the winning goal with 15.7 seconds remaining when he avoided Calgary rookie defenseman Derek Morris to knock in a rebound of a Craig Johnson shot from the right circle.

It was Tsyplakov’s 13th goal of the season and ninth in his last 12 home games.

“I went right to the net, it was a lucky bounce, the puck goes on my stick,” Tsyplakov said. “Every game is important right now, every point is important. It’s a good win for us. It’s an important two points.

“The bad thing is that we have to wait until the last five minutes. . . . It’s better to lead.”

Luc Robitaille and Rob Blake scored the Kings’ other goals, and goaltender Stephane Fiset improved to 4-1-2 in his last seven home starts with 20 saves.

German Titov scored twice and rookie Erik Andersson scored his first NHL goal for Calgary, which started rookie Tyler Moss in goal and had not lost in its last seven games at the Forum.

For the Kings, it was their second comeback win at home. They rallied to defeat the Mighty Ducks, 3-2, in overtime Jan. 12.

“We knew that we had to get the puck in deeper,” said center Jozef Stumpel, who had three assists. “We were trying to get it deep behind the net and from that produce some scoring.”

The Kings controlled play at both ends of the ice for most of the first period. They had two solid chances in the first four minutes, but Sean O’Donnell’s shot from the right point through the pads of Moss slid wide left of the Calgary goal, and Matt Johnson’s attempt from the slot was blocked by Moss.

The Kings’ lack of offense came back to haunt them later in the period when Calgary capitalized on its first man-advantage situation.

Dale Hulse found teammate Marty McInnis in the deep left corner, and before the Kings could put a body on him McInnis slapped a shot that Titov deflected into the net from the top of the crease at 13:41.

Calgary jumped to a two-goal lead at 13:05 of the second period on another deflected goal by Titov. Theoren Fleury outmuscled Garry Galley along the boards and delivered a one-handed centering pass to Titov, who scored despite being sandwiched by Matt Johnson and Perreault in the slot.

Although Moss looked shaky handling the puck at times, the Kings could not beat him until the third period.

Robinson helped get things started by making a couple of line changes, and the offense started to click. Nathan LaFayette, who has done a good job as the team’s top defensive center, kept the puck in the Calgary zone and Ian Laperriere made a perfect shot to the net from the left wing that Robitaille was able to deflect softly into the net at 3:20.

It was Robitaille’s 16th goal and sixth point in his last five games.

Thirty-seven seconds later, the Kings tied the score at 2-2 when Blake scored his 11th with a blast from the left point after Stumpel won a faceoff. It was Blake’s fourth goal in his last four games.

The Flames appeared to have withstood the flurry when they took a 3-2 lead at 13:22, Andersson scoring a rebound goal after a shot by Jonas Hoglund.

The Kings, however, refused to quit as Tsyplakov completed the comeback.