Not All Is Lost for Kings

Opportunity lost.

Sort of.

First-period goals by Detroit’s Niklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov and an empty-net score by Pat Verbeek beat the Kings, 3-1, on Tuesday night at Staples Center, but the daily math lesson that is the Western Conference playoff race is that sometimes when you lose, you win.

Edmonton and Phoenix also lost, so at Tuesday’s end, the Kings were back where they started: in sixth in the West, a point from fifth, four points from playoff oblivion but with another game having run through the hourglass.

If there was an opportunity to move ahead of Phoenix, well at least the Kings didn’t move farther behind.

It’s been that way for a while now.

“Normally I don’t talk about the scores from other games during our game, but tonight I went in right after the third period and got after them,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “And I said, ‘The night has worked our way and there’s a couple of other hockey clubs out there that have no opportunity to do anything about their games tonight. Their points are gone, and we have the opportunity to do something in the third period.’ ”

Maybe that helped, but not enough.

Down, 2-0, the Kings got one goal back in the third when Jere Karalahti bull-rushed the Red Wing net, pushing his way past Kirk Maltby and sliding the puck between Martin Lapointe and Kris Draper and into the net.

It wasn’t, Karalahti said, as difficult as it probably looked to the announced sellout crowd of 18,118.

“Bryan Smolinski won the faceoff, got the puck to Aki [Berg] and he gave me a good pass,” said Karalahti, who has five goals. “I had already beaten the forward [Maltby] and only had one guy to beat.”

Lapointe was tangled with Garry Galley at the time, and the two had Osgood’s attention.

Only 33 seconds later, the Kings went on a power play when Brendan Shanahan interfered with Ziggy Palffy, something that happened much of the evening.

But the power play lost some of its power when Luc Robitaille and Detroit’s Chris Chelios traded unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and tough words from near the Red Wing goal all the way to the penalty box. It was left for Detroit to kill off the final 90 seconds of the power play, which it did.

The Kings were 0 for 5 on the power play, and are two for their last 21 in power-play opportunities.

“I’m concerned about our power play right now,” Murray said. “The guys who are out there are the guys who are supposed to be out there.”

But they aren’t scoring.

Detroit has a different situation. The Red Wings are 4-0-1 in their last five games but are comfortably in fourth spot in the West and figure to get no better because they are chasing St. Louis, which shows no signs it is willing to be caught.

Two quick goals, less than two minutes apart, took the Kings apart in the first period, and one illustrated a particularly vexing problem in their power play.

What’s worse than one that doesn’t score?

One that gives up short-handed goals.

After Lidstrom scored on the second Red Wing shot of the game, the Kings went on a power play when Igor Larionov high-sticked Bob Corkum.

Just more than a minute into the man advantage, Galley found himself at an extreme disadvantage, with Fedorov to his right and Draper to his left, bearing down on the goal on a two-on-one after a turnover in the attacking zone.

Fedorov took care of the goal, his 20th of the season and the 12th the Kings have given up.

No team has given up more.

With the lead, Detroit merely circled the wagons, generally effective against a team that is 10-21-4 when the other guys score first; 5-14-3 when behind after a period; and 1-21 when behind after two.

“We tried to limit their scoring chances and we were pretty successful at it,” Detroit defenseman Larry Murphy said. “Getting that lead only helped, because we could concentrate on playing defense.”

The loss dropped the Kings to 1-2-1 in their homestand, which has three games to run, but that’s not the important thing.

“We just need to play better,” Galley said. “We need to win games so when we get into the playoffs, if we get into the playoffs, we’re playing at our best.”