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 for them Thursday.

Gary Roberts scored twice and goaltender Arturs Irbe made 30 saves as the Hurricanes swamped the surprisingly listless 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 after both teams won.

The Hurricanes, who had lost a 7-5 decision at Phoenix Wednesday, looked fresh and were more opportunistic 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.

Roberts, who missed 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.

“We gave them the game tonight,” said King left wing Luc Robitaille, who extended his point-scoring streak to 15 games with a goal in the second period. “We did not have good team discipline. This just can’t happen at this time of year.”

Robitaille matched the NHL’s longest streaks this season, previously accomplished by Pittsburgh’s Jaromir Jagr, St. Louis’ Pierre Turgeon and New Jersey’s Patrik Elias. He has 11 goals and 24 points in that span.

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.

The Hurricanes scored on their second shot, 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. Roberts’ ploy succeeded, and Fiset lost the puck. The Hurricanes controlled it along the boards and Rod Brind’Amour set up Sami Kapanen in the slot. The Finnish winger rifled a wrist shot past Fiset from the hash marks between the faceoff circles, his 21st goal.

Irbe twice had to scramble 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 in the period, Irbe made a quick arm save on 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.

The Kings outshot the Hurricanes, 10-4, in the first period and had two power-play chances but could not dent Irbe’s defenses.

Given another power play, in the second period, the Kings produced a goal, although it came three seconds after the advantage ended. Jozef Stumpel had the puck in the left faceoff circle and found Robitaille across the ice. Robitaille didn’t wait to settle the puck on his stick and whipped it past Irbe, who may have been screened.

The Kings seemed to lose their discipline midway through the second period and took a succession of penalties they debated with referee Kerry Fraser. They finally got caught, and yielded a goal while Bryan Smolinski and Garry Galley were in the penalty box at 14:19.

Veteran Carolina center Ron Francis began the play by winning a faceoff in the Kings’ end. He got the puck back to defenseman Sean Hill, who relayed it to Kapanen. However, Kapanen passed it back to Hill, whose shot was stopped by Fiset. But the puck lay at his feet, where he couldn’t grab it to freeze it and get a whistle, and Roberts pounced on it and lifted it over Fiset for his 13th goal.

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.

*

DUCKS LEFT IN A MESS

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