Kings Are at a Loss Again, 5-2

Social note for this holiday season: don’t invite King Coach Andy Murray and his Colorado counterpart, Bob Hartley, to the same party.

Hartley drew Murray’s ire Thursday night after Joe Sakic’s three goals and some porous goaltending gave the Avalanche a 5-2 victory before 18,007 at the Pepsi Center.

“I didn’t like it much that Bob Hartley put Sakic out there in the third period, double-shifting him with three goals,” Murray said. “I respect the game too much for me to do that.

“He had words with [Edmonton Coach] Craig MacTavish for doing something like that.”

Hartley’s RSVP was that the perception is Murray’s problem.

“I was just rolling my lines,” he said. “Too bad for him.”

Too bad in a lot of ways. The Kings lost their third game in a row and are in an 0-3-1 slump. The defense they sought was apparent for two periods. The goaltending they sought wasn’t.

“You saw it,” Murray said. “It’s disappointing. You go out and want to play a tight-checking game . . .”

And you turn it over to your goaltender, who in this case was Jamie Storr. He faced 26 shots and fished five of them out of the net.

Two of them were difficult for Storr to defend:

* Alex Tanguay’s shot in the first period was launched from an impossible angle and became possible only when the puck hit Storr’s leg and caromed into the net to give the Avalanche a 2-1 lead;

“Tanguay’s goal was huge,” Sakic said. “To go down 1-0 so quickly [on a goal by Bryan Smolinski with only 56 seconds played], and the guys battled back and we tied it up; and Alex got one right away that helped our momentum.”

Said Storr: “Those are the kind of goals you don’t like to give up. It gives the illusion of a bad game, and up to that point, I thought I had played pretty well.”

* Sakic’s goal at 15:24 of the third period.

“You can’t make any mistakes against them,” Storr said. “They’re the best team in the league. “I made two tonight and the pucks went in.”

Storr was challenged, though the Kings, who have given up 21 goals in their four-game stumble, played better defense in front of him than they have lately.

At the other end of the ice, Patrick Roy had one of the easiest of his 461 victories, facing only 16 shots, virtually none on four King power plays.

The Colorado power play proved to be much of the Kings’ undoing.

L.A. earned a 1-0 lead when Jozef Stumpel, back after missing two games and skating with a broken toe on his left foot, sent the puck to Luc Robitaille, who is battling a cold.

Robitaille back-handed it across the crease to Smolinski, who scored easily.

That was countered by Sakic’s first goal, scored on a power play; and by Tanguay’s, scored on a misplay.

The Kings kept it close, though, for two periods.

Dan Hinote’s goal at 7:04 of the third period made it 3-1, countered by Mathieu Schneider’s blast at 10:42.

From there, Sakic finished up, with an even-strength goal and one on a power play with only 1:55 left.

He benefited from a line change that paired him with Peter Forsberg, who assisted on all of Sakic’s goals. The move was the result of an 0-2-2 run during a Colorado homestand that had Hartley in a mood to juggle his lines.

Putting Forsberg and Sakic together is never a wrong move.

“I guess that every once in a while a new line combination generates something,” Sakic said. “It worked tonight.”

The King goaltending didn’t. Murray was pondering who to play tonight at Minnesota.

“They’ve got to get the job done for us,” he said of Storr and Stephane Fiset, both of whom have struggled lately. “We’ll work with them.”

And the goalies will take the heat.

“It depends on who’s doing the blaming,” Storr said. “I know my teammates are behind us. Whoever’s pointing fingers, well, there’s no finger-pointing on this team. If you point fingers, it’s just making up excuses, and excuses are for losers.”