Kings Can’t Take Advantage, Lose

A two-man advantage can break a game open.

But it also can break the team that doesn’t take advantage.

Take Saturday night at Staples Center.

The Kings were sailing along on a wave of momentum in front of a sellout crowd of 18,118, their 10th sellout of the season, until a string of five-on-three situations brought them crashing to the ice and sent the Southeast Division-leading Washington Capitals soaring to a 4-3 victory.

After losing three of four games, the Kings had enjoyed a comeback week, having tied the Chicago Blackhawks and defeated the Carolina Hurricanes despite losing defenseman Rob Blake in the Blackhawk game because of a bruised shoulder.

Although Blake sat out his second game Saturday night, the Kings were off to another good start thanks to center Bob Corkum, whose shot from the top of the right circle about eight minutes into the first period sailed through the pads of Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig for his third goal of the season.

It appeared there would be more a minute later when Capital defenseman Joe Reekie was called for tripping. Teammate Peter Bondra also drew two minutes for protesting the call.

But the Kings failed to take advantage of the twin penalties, creating only three shots on goal.

So much for the momentum.

The Kings have failed to score on eight of 14 five-on-three situations this season.

In the second period, the Capitals got their chances and took advantage.

With both Kelly Buchberger (hooking-obstruction) and Jere Karalahti (boarding) in the penalty box, Bondra scored his 33rd goal and sixth in four games.

Then, with Glen Murray (slashing) having joined Karalahti, Washington’s Sergei Gonchar, on the Capitals’ first shot in their second five-on-three, scored his 13th goal to boost Washington into the lead, 2-1.

Having found the net, the Capitals’ kept firing away and kept hitting their target. Before the period was over, Washington had scored all four of its goals, Steve Konowalchuk getting his 17th and Richard Zednik adding his 13th.

It was a poor night for the Kings’ special teams. In all, they were just one for eight on the power play while Washington managed to convert on two of six power-play opportunities.

“I think, in the last few games, we’ve been having lapses,” Buchberger said, “and tonight was no different. We had some penalty problems, undisciplined problems and penalties that really hurt us. Our penalty killing hasn’t been up to par lately and they just took it to us in the second period.”

King Coach Andy Murray had seen enough. He pulled goalie Jamie Storr at the end of the dismal period, replacing him with Steve Passmore.

The Kings tried to come back in the final period. Luc Robitaille scored his team-leading 27th goal in a manner coaches love to see, by camping in front of the opposing goalie and waiting for the puck to come his way.

Sure enough, Lubomir Visnovsky took a slap shot from the outside that Robitaille was able to redirect past Kolzig.

Passmore did his job, shutting the door on the Capitals, who made it easy on him by getting only one shot in the third period. The Kings had 12 shots in the period.

That was typical on a night when the Kings squandered opportunity after opportunity despite outshooting Washington, 30-21.

The Kings made it close. With Passmore pulled in the final minute, Karalahti scored his second goal of the season.

But only 42.9 seconds remained. Not enough time to prevent the Kings from dropping to 24-22-8-1.

“Our effort in the third period,” Andy Murray said, “makes our play in the second period look even worse. We dominated in that third period.”

The Capitals improved to 27-19-9-1 by pulling off a Southern California sweep. On Friday night, they defeated the Ducks by the same score, ending a three-game losing streak in Anaheim.

Saturday night’s victory was even more memorable since it was their first on Kings’ home ice since the 1993-94 season. The Capitals didn’t visit L.A. the following season, but since then, the Kings had gone 3-0-2 at home against Washington.