Kings Waste Murray’s Two Goals in a 3-3 Tie

The video was “Goals I Have Scored,” starring Glen Murray, who was given a copy Tuesday morning to remind him what it was like to turn on a red light.

It would be nice to credit that for the two goals he scored later that evening. It would also be inaccurate.

“My VCR broke,” Murray said, laughing.

Rob Blake added a power-play goal in the third period of a 3-3 tie with Phoenix before an announced 13,557, at least a third of whom stayed home to watch the election returns.

Second-period goals by Landon Wilson and Keith Tkachuk matched Murray’s scores and Shane Doan’s score in the third period gave the Coyotes a 3-2 lead at Staples Center.

Phoenix extended its unbeaten streak to 12 games (8-0-4), in large part because of Doan’s goal at 7:46 of the third period. It came when Travis Green beat the Kings’ Lubomir Visnovsky to a puck in the corner and sent it to Doan, who shot it past Luc Robitaille and goalie Jamie Storr.

Murray’s goals--his first since he scored against the Mighty Ducks on Oct. 25--gave the Kings their third lead in as many games against the Coyotes this season. They are 0-2-1 in those games.

On Tuesday morning, his recent play was assessed by Coach Andy Murray in concise Canadian coach speak.

“We need Glen to play with a shorter stick,” he said.

Translation: A player down on the end of his stick doesn’t have his nose in a play. He’s hanging back, and Murray’s game is definitely forward, mixing it up with the opposition, using his strength and a booming shot.

His stick shortened on his first goal, which was the end of a process that began when Murray beat Phoenix’s Radoslav Suchy for a puck on the end boards and slipped it to Robitaille, who won his own wrestling match with Stan Neckar, back-handing the puck goalward, where Murray finished things for a 1-0 lead.

It came at 10:14 of the opening period, which is how long it took the Kings to get their first shot on goal in the tight-checking game.

Along the trail that became Phoenix’s unbeaten streak was a 3-1 victory over the Kings in which they took the second and third periods off.

“We’d like them to get a little mad at what has happened to us against Phoenix,” said Andy Murray, who was more than a bit angry at his team’s effort in that 3-1 loss.

Whether it was anger or merely the play the Kings had become accustomed to in a three-game winning streak to finish their last trip, they came out strong in the second, with Murray again scoring, this time at 10:28. By then, though, the Kings had outshot the Coyotes, 9-2, in the period, a sign that the work ethic missing at Phoenix two weeks ago had been found.

And then lost, because the Coyotes pressed the action, getting Wilson’s goal when he took a puck from Wyatt Smith and shot it past Storr at 13:09 to cut the King lead in half.

It vanished when Tkachuk took a pass from Jeremy Roenick and scored on a power play with 11.6 seconds to play in the second period.

With Phoenix’s Sean Burke in goal, with his 1.51 goals-against average, it seemed only a matter of time. Doan’s goal verified that belief, but the Kings were not finished.

Roenick pulled down Blake with 10:28 played in the final period, drawing a holding penalty, and the Kings turned it into a goal when Bryan Smolinski took a pass, split the Phoenix penalty killers--beating Keith Carney on the play--then backhanded the pass to Blake, who put the puck under the crossbar to tie the score at 3-3 at 12:43.