Unlikely Heroes Carry Kings

Like the cavalry, Bryan Smolinski and Donald Audette rode to the rescue of the Kings, along with their compadres Garry Galley and Marko Tuomainen.

The first line, which had carried the Kings through the season’s first five games, was largely missing in action Friday night, save for one critical moment when it would have been better off elsewhere. But Smolinski stepped up, became the center of attention and scored a goal and set up another in a 4-1 victory over the Calgary Flames before 12,866 at the Canadian Airlines Saddledome.

And you thought the second line was never going to score?

“They’ve been getting chances the last two or three games, and it’s nice to see them get rewarded,” King Coach Andy Murray said.

Finally.

“We can do it!” shouted Audette, laughing at critics who were wondering when they were going to do anything after he, Smolinski and winger Glen Murray had gone pointless through the season’s first five games.

“I think these goals were important,” added Audette, who fed Smolinski from behind the net in the second period for the game’s first goal, then got a pass from Smolinski and scored to give the Kings a pressure-relieving 3-1 lead in the third.

“Our line has been playing well the last two or three games. We’ve had lots of chances. Tonight, it worked.”

Friday night, it was needed.

The first line--Luc Robitaille, Jozef Stumpel and Ziggy Palffy--went shotless for a period in which the Flames played keepaway.

“With the exception of one line, we didn’t show up tonight,” fumed Calgary Coach Brian Sutter.

That line was Bill Lindsay--who scored the Flames’ lone goal--Jeff Shantz and Travis Brigley, and their assignment was to negate the Kings’ top line.

They did for much of the night, though they got help from goaltender Grant Fuhr, who numbers the Kings among his many former employers, and who twice thwarted two-on-one opportunities involving Stumpel, Robitaille and Palffy in the second period.

In the end, Robitaille and Palffy had only one shot each, and Robitaille’s scoring streak ended at five games.

It was left for Smolinski to score first, then Rob Blake to blast one in from the blue line that was waved off because the officials determined that Palffy was too close to Fuhr. Replays showed that the call might have been better made a year ago, before the “in-the-crease” rule was changed to allow conventions within arm’s length of the goalie.

After Lindsay tied the score, 1-1, Galley’s shot from the blue line hit the skate of Calgary’s Tommy Albelin and deflected past Fuhr for the winner at 12:43 of the second period.

Jason Blake leaped over the shot, at first getting credit for the goal, eventually getting credit for screening Fuhr on the play.

The Kings still had the problem of holding onto a third-period lead, something they have been working on after failing to do so in a loss at Florida and tie at Washington.

The holding action was accomplished by playing keepaway from the Flames for much of the period, but scoring shots for Audette and Tuomainen were too great to pass up.

“We broke then down in the last 10 [actually about 13] minutes and got some opportunities,” Andy Murray said. “In this game, you get what you deserve, and we deserved to win that hockey game.”

And the Flames deserved to lose it.

“All four of their goals were almost identical: us giving the puck up along the boards and not doing the little things,” said Sutter. “The next thing you know, the defensemen and goaltenders are left high and dry.”

The next thing you know, the Kings are 4-1-1. Calgary (1-4-1) is winless in four games at home.

And the Kings’ second line has two goals.

“They’ve stayed together because we think they’ve played hard,” said Murray, who had talked in passing of shaking things up if the scoring drought continued. “They just haven’t been strong in some of the offensive areas we would have liked. They haven’t finished.”

Friday night, they finished off Calgary.

DUCKS 3

TAMPA BAY 2

Mike Leclerc scored the winner only 1:40 into the final period.

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