Kings Relax Their Grip

If the Kings needed a reminder how quickly their playoff hopes can be quashed if they relax for even a few moments, the Carolina Hurricanes hammered that lesson home Thursday.

Gary Roberts scored twice and goaltender Arturs Irbe made 30 saves as the Hurricanes swamped the penalty-prone Kings, 5-2, before an announced crowd of 15,424 at Staples Center. The Kings remain sixth in the West, but their lead over Colorado and San Jose shrank to two points.

“We gave them the game tonight,” said King left wing Luc Robitaille, who extended his point-scoring streak to 15 games and matched the longest streak in the NHL this season. “We didn’t have good team discipline. That just can’t happen this time of year.”

The Hurricanes, who had lost a 7-5 decision at Phoenix Wednesday, looked fresher than the Kings, who are 0-1-1 on this seven-game home stand. The Kings resorted to the dramatic measure of pulling goalie Stephane Fiset with 3:11 to play; a power play gave them a six-on-four advantage, but Glen Murray’s goal was too little, too late.

“We didn’t deserve to win tonight,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “We did a lot of good talking on the bench and saying the right things, but we didn’t do them on the ice. . . . There’s pressure on us, no question, and we have to be able to deal with it. I don’t like the way some of our players have dealt with it.”

Irbe, who gave up three goals Wednesday at Phoenix, was often spectacular Thursday. “He was special. He won the game for a hungry team,” Carolina Coach Paul Maurice said.

Roberts, who sat out the 1996-97 season because of a neck injury, scored Carolina’s second and third goals and moved his team within two points of eighth in the tightly bunched East. Carolina converted two of eight power plays, many of them on penalties the Kings took out of frustration.

“You go through the games this year when we had trouble, and it was because we took bad penalties,” King center Ian Laperriere said. “Right now, this is playoff hockey for us. We’re not in yet. Hopefully, this is a wakeup call.”

Both goalies had difficulty handling the puck in the first period. Irbe is notorious for his misadventures, but Fiset is considered capable in that area. However, he turned the puck over after leaving his net to play a dump-in early in the first period, and that led to Carolina’s first goal, at 7:32.

Fiset turned his back to the play as he went to the left-wing corner to play the puck, so he couldn’t have seen Roberts coming to pressure him into making a bad pass. Carolina took the puck along the boards and Rod Brind’Amour set up Sami Kapanen in the slot for a wrist shot from the hash marks between the faceoff circles, his 21st goal.

Irbe twice scrambled to overcome his puckhandling mistakes. Three minutes into the game, he came out of the net and couldn’t get back into position when the puck took a strange carom. Murray fed Donald Audette, whose backhand was stopped by Irbe as the Latvian-born goalie sprawled on his belly. Later, Irbe used his right arm to stop Robitaille in similar circumstances. Irbe had come out of his crease and banged the puck off the boards, but the Kings intercepted it. Ziggy Palffy passed it to Robitaille, whose shot from close range was repelled by the acrobatic goalie.

“It was very important for our team at that time of the game,” Irbe said. “After that, it was just, ‘Give me another shot.’ ”

The Kings obliged, but Irbe frustrated them until the second period, when Robitaille scored three seconds after a power play had ended.

The Kings lost their discipline midway through the second period and took a succession of penalties that cost them a rebound goal by Roberts while Bryan Smolinski and Garry Galley were in the penalty box at 14:19.

“Penalty trouble, penalty trouble,” Galley said ruefully. “Lately we had been keeping our discipline. Tonight we got away from it.”

Roberts scored again, 25 seconds into the third period. Kapanen dashed up the right side and slid the puck behind two King defenders to Roberts, who was alone deep on the left side and merely had to flick the puck past a helpless Fiset. Martin Gelinas made it 4-1, and after Glen Murray cut the lead to 4-2, Brind’Amour scored into an empty net.

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DUCKS LEFT IN A MESS

Mark Messier leads Canucks to crucial 3-1 victory over visiting Anaheim. Page 5