Kings Let Another Chance Slip Away

It was there for the taking.

The Calgary Flames had played the night before at Vancouver, then had flown through the night to get to Inglewood for their game Saturday night against the Kings.

Three points separated the Kings and Calgary, the ninth-place team in the Western Conference, and the seventh- and eighth-place teams, Edmonton and San Jose, had both lost.

The window of opportunity was quickly slammed shut.

The Kings gave up first-period goals to Valeri Bure and Cory Stillman, a second-period goal to Denis Gauthier and fell apart in the third period of a 4-1 loss. They seem to refuse to salvage a playoff berth, even when one is proffered.

“We knew what had happened with Edmonton but we didn’t know about San Jose,” defenseman Sean O’Donnell said. “So what? We can’t worry about what they do. It doesn’t matter what they do if we don’t win.”

Opportunity knocked. No one was at home, save for an announced 14,451 at the Great Western Forum, who announced their displeasure loudly.

And for the Flames, who had enough energy to score quickly and cruise home.

It was an old story.

“We came out and wanted to have a good start,” King center Ray Ferraro said. “We played well in the third period against Nashville and wanted to have a carry-over. The first two shifts we get some momentum, and the puck jumps over O’Donnell’s stick and Bure scores a breakaway.

“We’re down, 1-0, and we didn’t seem to get it going again. The games, we have been saying for a month, are way too important not to have.”

Bure’s goal came after Ian Laperriere’s shot from close in was rejected by Calgary goalie Fred Brathwaite, and the long rebound went out to Stillman, who fired toward a streaking Bure. O’Donnell was there, having just come onto the ice, and the puck hopped and Bure had a breakout, with only King goalie Stephane Fiset to beat.

Adrenaline charged and with a lead, the Flames won puck after puck and got a second goal when Stillman took a pass from Rene Corbet and scored only seven seconds after the Kings had killed off a four-minute penalty on Russ Courtnall.

A 2-0 lead after one period has been too much all season.

“When you’re scoring at about 1.5 goals a game, it’s awfully tough to win a game,” said Jay Leach, acting as coach in the place of Larry Robinson, was who attending his mother’s funeral in Canada.

The deficit was too much again Saturday night, and it became 3-0 in the second period when Gauthier came out of the penalty box and found himself alone with a puck. Only six seconds after he had finished serving a two-minute sentence, Gauthier scored.

That was countered by Doug Bodger’s first goal of the season.

Kings’ momentum? Not really.

Anything resembling a groundswell was taken care of in the third period when defenseman Rob Blake took offense at being hit about the neck by the stick of Clarke Wilm. Blake took off after Wilm, and what ensued wasn’t much of a fight by any standard, but it was enough to get Blake 17 minutes in penalties.

And the Kings spent the rest of the night without their captain.

“I thought he dropped his gloves the same time I did,” said Blake, questioning the “instigator” part of his penalty. “It was a pretty [bad] call by the referee, if you ask me. . . . If you look at my history, I may have one fight a year. I don’t go after a fight too often.”

The idea of turning the other cheek never crossed his mind.

“I’m not going to take that stuff,” he said. “We’re far enough out of the playoff hunt that you aren’t going to sit there and take that stuff . . . from some kid.”

Jarome Iginla scored only 33 seconds into the power play.

“You guys want me to take it?” Blake said unusually heatedly. “If you want to, go ahead and put it in there. It was my fault. We lost.”

It wasn’t. He had plenty of help.