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Granato Makes King Defeat Official

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Referee Terry Gregson was in the wrong place at the wrong time Wednesday night as far as the Kings were concerned.

San Jose probably would see it another way.

Gregson, one of two referees working the game in the NHL’s experiment with extra officials, was hit by a clearing pass from the Kings’ Philippe Boucher in the third period, and seconds later Tony Granato’s shot was in the Kings’ net for a 5-4 victory at San Jose.

“Same story, different town,” said King Coach Larry Robinson, who has cursed fate in their five-game losing streak, their 1-7-1 aggregate for their last nine games.

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The Kings were on a power play at the time, and the Sharks had sent the puck in harm’s way, where it was turned back by goalie Manny Legace. Boucher merely sought to send it toward the other end, normally among the safest of plays, but apparently not with an extra official cluttering the rink.

The puck hit Gregson, was knocked to the ice and Granato was there. He passed to Marco Sturm, then rebounded Sturm’s shot for his second goal of the night, sending 16,703 home happy.

“I didn’t see the referee,” Boucher said. “I saw Yanic Perreault open and I passed toward him. That’s my play, to give it to my man, and he was wide open.”

And so was Gregson.

“I should have gone off the boards,” said Boucher, taking blame when blame probably wasn’t his to take. “I’ve got to make the play. . . . We’ve got two forwards wide open down the ice.”

And a referee between Boucher and them. And Granato bringing the Sharks back from a 4-3 third-period deficit, the product of the Kings’ second power-play goal in as many games.

As he did Monday night at Anaheim, where his goal ended a 26-power play drought, Olli Jokinen turned on the switch with his third-period goal that provided a short-lived lead.

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Jokinen’s goal from about 10 feet away to San Jose goalie Mike Vernon’s glove side came on their fourth man-advantage opportunity of the evening.

Granato neutralized his former teammates’ lead with a tying goal from 20 feet out at 6:28. He took a pass from Jeff Friesen on the play, giving Friesen his third point of the night.

He had two goals and has 13 points in his last eight games.

In a lot of ways, it was a night like so many for Legace, who lost his fourth in a row and has been struggling with a crisis of confidence.

“I think that from the first game to oh, the last three or four games, I don’t think I’ve been as confident,” Legace said. “I think it’s because I’ve been losing a lot.”

Though his goals-against average--2.24 coming into Wednesday’s game--had been among the league’s best, Legace is only 2-8-2 and it’s gnawing at him.

“I find myself pressing a lot,” he said. “I’ve been trying to win every save. I can’t do that. But it seems like the last four or five games, every mistake I make, the puck ends up behind me. It’s just one step the wrong way, the puck is behind me. I tense up the puck is behind me.”

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Joe Murphy got a step on defender Mark Visheau, and the puck was behind Legace at 1:27 of the opening period. Patrick Marleau picked the puck off the stick of Kings’ defenseman Mattias Norstrom, and Friesen made it 2-0 at 6:28 of the second period.

Goals by Luc Robitaille and Glen Murray, scored only 28 seconds apart, matched that.

And Friesen’s second goal of the night, scored on an extended Shark power play at 16 minutes of the second period, made the score 3-2.

No problem. The Kings picked up a penalty on the play when Sean O’Donnell cross-checked Owen Nolan and quickly turned that to their advantage when Legace turned back a shot, Mark Visheau picked off the rebound and sent it forward to Murray and he scored the eighth short-handed Kings’ goal of the season.

The blocked shot earned Legace a playmaker role, giving him a rarity for a goalie: an assist, his first in the NHL.

Still, his San Jose counterpart, Vernon, got what Legace so dearly wanted: a win, by facing 40 King shots and stopping 36 of them.

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