Kings Lose 3-1 Lead but Not the Game

Along with the goals has come the blame for a season of frustration. Along with sharpshooters taking aim at him have come the critics.

When one of the top scoring teams in the league struggles to win games, the goaltender is going to take the heat.

So it has been with Kings and goalie Jaime Storr.

So it appeared to be Tuesday night.

The Kings had leads of 2-0 and 3-1 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Staples Center in front of a crowd of 13,527 only to be caught at 3-3.

But then Storr sealed off the net the rest of the way to salvage a 3-3 tie.

He had to be at his best at the end to equal the effort of Chicago goalie Jocelyn Thibault, who matched Storr save for save, and then some. Thibault faced 40 shots, Storr 23.

And Thibault saved his best for last.

With seconds remaining in the overtime, King wing Glenn Murray, who had scored earlier, found him himself in a dream position, the puck on his stick, open ice ahead and not a defenseman in sight.

Murray bore down on Thibault and fired at close range. But the Chicago goalie got his left hand on the puck and clutched it tightly as he fell to the ice face down with 9.8 seconds remaining.

King Coach Andy Murray wasn’t happen with the tie.

“We’ve got guys that are doing selfish things,” he said. “We are doing things that losing teams do. We are not playing the percentages. We are not doing things good teams do.

“There is some block out there that is not allowing us to play as a team and it’s not the Rob Blake situation.”

Murray was referring to the fact that Blake is on the verge of being traded because of a stalemate in contract talks.

But that situation may have taken yet another turn in overtime Tuesday night when the King defenseman injured his right shoulder in the overtime period.

After X-rays were negative, the injury was diagnosed as a contusion. Further tests are scheduled for today.

But until those tests are complete and a firm diagnosis of Blake can be made, it is unlikely that any trade talks can proceed.

The first period was a defensive struggle until Murray broke through with 48 seconds remaining.

Knocking down a pass from Blake that caromed off a Blackhawk, Murray had the puck at his feet and Thibault out of the net.

That was fortunate for Murray, who had to take two swipes at the puck to finally nudge it across the goal line for his 10th goal of the season, and his first after a drought of more than three weeks.

The Kings increased their lead to 2-0 early in the second period when Nelson Emerson lofted a rebound over Thibault for his eighth goal.

But whatever lead the Kings’ offense gives, the goaltender often lets get away.

Sure enough, Storr surrendered a goal three minutes later when a puck he knocked down was shoved across the line by Chicago’s Michael Nylander, his 17th goal.

Luc Robitaille’s 26th--his fifth goal in the last three games--pushed the Kings into a 3-1 lead.

It was also Robitaille’s seventh goal in his last four games if you count the two he scored in Sunday’s All-Star game.

Steve Sullivan’s 24th goal, an unassisted poke of a loose puck in front of the net, narrowed the Kings’ lead to 3-2 just before the halfway point of the second period.

Sullivan came back in the final period with the evening’s final goal, redirecting a shot off the stick of Alexander Karpovtsev. That came at the 3:44 mark of the period.

Then Storr shut the Blackhawks down for the remaining 21 minutes and 16 seconds, denying Chicago on 12 shots.

Only one of those shots came in the overtime while the Kings managed six shots on goal in the extra five minutes.