No Lead Safe for Kings

It doesn’t matter where you are, a $400-million downtown L.A. playground or someplace in the wilds of Edmonton.

Even in a swamp alongside an interstate highway in Florida or by the Capitol in Washington.

Losing leads is an awful habit to kick.

In all but one of their three losses and two ties, the Kings have become careless with a lead, and seldom was it more evident than Friday night, when an announced 16,572 saw another first at Staples Center.

Deron Quint’s goal at 3:04 of the third period was Phoenix’s third in a row, and it was followed by goals by Keith Tkachuk and Mika Alatalo that finished off a comeback and handed the Kings a 6-3 loss, their first in the new arena.

Quint took a pass from Greg Adams, who then headed goalward to screen Stephane Fiset, who could not handle Quint’s shot.

It was the third of five goals in a row for Phoenix (5-1-2), which started its rally in the second period when Dallas Drake picked up a puck pushed forward by Teppo Numminen on a King power play and was off to the races.

Drake’s goal was the first the Kings have given up short-handed, and it opened the floodgates.

At 14:16, the Coyotes’ Trevor Letowski scored on a shot from the right wing after he, too, had taken a pass from Numminen.

Letowski’s goal tied the score, 3-3, setting up Quint’s heroics and the excess by Tkachuk on a power play and Alatalo, 10 seconds later.

The King defense was soft in the second and third periods, leaving Fiset open to assault.

For the first time this season, he was not equal to it.

It was the first Pacific Division game for the Kings, who began with victories at Nashville and St. Louis but are 2-3-2 since. Yet they have led in eight of nine games.

They have another Pacific game on Sunday night at Staples Center against San Jose.

Their early advantage was the result of work by the third line.

Winger Craig Johnson had complained earlier in the week that his unit, called the “stoppers” because of their mission of dealing with the opposition’s No. 1 line, had not been taking advantage of offensive opportunities.

That certainly ended Friday night when center Ian Laperriere scored twice, his first goals and the third and fourth generated by his line.

In both cases, right wing Brad Chartrand was involved. Subbing for injured Marko Tuomainen, who had the line’s other two goals, Chartrand centered a puck that was deflected by defenseman Aki Berg to Laperriere, who powered it past Mikhail Shtalenkov for the game’s first goal and the Kings’ first lead at Staples.

It was short-lived, countered by Travis Green’s goal, only five seconds into the first Phoenix power play.

Ziggy Palffy matched that goal with a power-play score of his own, set up when Luc Robitaille saved a puck that was skittering around the boards. Robitaille kept it in the offensive end and sent it to Rob Blake, who fired from near the blue line. The puck deflected off Numminen’s skates to Palffy, who made it 2-1.

Laperriere made it 3-1 on a give-and-go with Chartrand, the two working against Phoenix’s J.J. Daignault.

It was the high-water mark for the Kings. Drake then started the Phoenix assault.

There followed another first at Staples Center, “boos” from the assemblage who had seen too much of this across town at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood.

By game’s end, the Kings had been outshot, 34-26, after holding Phoenix to one shot in the first 10 minutes.