Coyotes Overpower Outmanned Kings and Win, 4-0

It began with a false alarm.

Then came a manpower shortage, brought about by an alarming number of Kings in the penalty box.

Finally, the Kings reverted to form on Saturday night, playing as they did before a six-day hiatus.

In the end, five Coyotes were too much for three Kings, and that scenario started a second-period trail of goals by Daniel Briere, Juha Ylonen and Teppo Numminen in a 4-0 loss to Phoenix at the Great Western Forum that was, well, alarmingly like a defeat by the Coyotes four weeks ago.

Back then, the Kings were having trouble scoring--the 3-0 loss on Nov. 1 was their second shutout in a row at the Forum, a record. And on Saturday night they were still struggling to find the net.

So much so that a sign held by a guy seeking to separate himself from the 13,008 customers on hand, the better to entice a camera’s attention, seemed apropos: “Pavel Bure Please!!”

The week since the last time they played seemed well spent early on when the Kings forechecked like Dobermans, keeping the puck in the Phoenix end for much of a first period that ended in a 0-0 stalemate.

“I thought we played a great first period,” said Coach Larry Robinson. “They only got a couple of chances. We played them the way you have to play them to beat them.”

And then didn’t.

The first period also ended in a slashing penalty on Glen Murray, whose stick rattled the hands of Phoenix’s Jeremy Roenick, creating a power play.

No problem, because the Coyote power play is nearly as statistically abysmal as the Kings. Phoenix is 25th in the league, the Kings 27th.

And no problem because the Coyotes were called for a bench minor to open the second period, apparently evening up the manpower. Except that the new NHL rule involved, which requires players warming up between period to vacate the ice in a timely fashion or be hit with a delay penalty, does not go into force until Dec. 7.

So the power play continued, exacerbated when the Kings Vladimir Tsyplakov was detecting holding Oleg Tverdovsky.

Still no problem, except that Doug Bodger was detected slamming Keith Tkachuk into the boards.

More five on three. This time it was too much. The Kings were in transition from serving their five-on-three time, making it technically--but only technically--a five-on-four situation when Briere, camped out on the left side of the net, banged in a rebound of a shot by Jyrki Lumme shot to make it 1-0.

The Coyotes have built the NHL’s best record by protecting a goal, and the 1-0 lead looked like enough for an eighth consecutive victory, a 14th consecutive game in which they earned a point.

And then Ylonen added a goal, rebounding a shot by Shane Doan, just trickling the puck over the skate of King goalie Jamie Storr for a 2-0 lead only 57 seconds later.

“That five-on-three kind of took the life out of us,” Robinson said. “They got two goals and we didn’t recover from it. We got soft, and when you play against a team as talented as Phoenix, you know they are not going to give you a lot of chances.”

Somehow, Numminen’s goal, scored from Storr’s right when Storr was on the left side of the crease, seemed superfluous.

By the time Storr turned in a sterling glove save on Keith Tkachuk’s shot from six feet at 11:52, the damage had been done.

Through all of that, Phoenix outshot the Kings, 15-4, in the second period, nothing new. The Kings (6-13-3) have been outshot, 235-203, and outscored 25-15, in 22 second periods.

At game’s end, Phoenix had outshot the Kings, 31-20, and most of the King shots produced no particular danger for Coyote goalie Nikolai Khabibulin. The Coyotes have given up two or fewer goals in their last 17 games, one short of the league record. Not since surrendering four goals to Ottawa on opening night has Phoenix’s defense been so challenged.

A month that opened with a Phoenix win over the Kings had closed with one. In between, Phoenix was 10-1.

And the Kings were 2-9-1.