Kings Led Astray by Devils

Forget the NHL Players Assn. The Kings should be card-carrying members of the United Mine Workers.

They keep digging themselves into a hole.

Another shovel went into the Western Conference playoff race Thursday night at the Great Western Forum, where Scott Niedermayer’s unhindered second-period goal was the difference in New Jersey’s 3-2 victory that left the Kings five points behind St. Louis for eighth place in the conference. That’s where they stop counting playoff teams.

The Kings’ Luc Robitaille found it difficult to celebrate being named to the North American team for Sunday’s NHL All-Star game at Tampa as a replacement for injured Steve Yzerman of Detroit, saying, “I’m so disappointed for us. It’s just no good. We’re going to really have to play desperate hockey now.”

They did in spots Thursday night, but one of them wasn’t when Niedermayer scored on a rebound of Brendan Morrison’s shot from near the blue line.

That shot was turned back by beleaguered King goalie Jamie Storr, but the puck bounced 10 feed in front of the goal, and with no defenders to keep him at bay, Niedermayer skated tantalizingly from Storr’s left to his right and backhanded the shot home for a 3-1 lead.

That it was no worse was largely because of Storr, who got little help from his defense.

That was particularly true in the first period, which he spent imitating a skating duck, downrange in a shooting gallery.

The Devils had nine shots on a 3:40 power play, brought about when Robitaille high-sticked Sheldon Souray behind the New Jersey goal.

Storr turned back the barrage, which lasted the entire period. The Kings were outshot, 23-4, in the first.

“I think they had 13 shots on the power play,” said King Coach Larry Robinson. “When you’re killing penalties all the time, it is pretty tough to build any kind of momentum.”

The Kings were outscored, 2-1, in that period and the first goal came when Randy McKay beat Storr with an unobstructed shot from the right wing to make it 1-0.

“It was a bad goal,” Storr said. “You let in one goal and you either quit or battle.”

Storr battled, and the goal was countered by the Kings’ Jozef Stumpel, who scored the first of his two goals 1:02 later, banging the puck of the shoulder of the Devils’ Martin Brodeur.

New Jersey took the lead for good at 12:21 on Bobby Holik’s goal. It was the only man-advantage goal of the night, not that there weren’t ample opportunities. There were 24 penalties in the game.

New Jersey was one for seven on the power play, the Kings 0 for 5, including one covering the final 1:10 in which Donald Audette’s apparent game-tying shot -- with the Kings using six skaters and Storr watching from the bench -- was waved off by referee Mick McGeough, who decided Audette’s stick was too high on the play.