Kings’ Tie Not Pointless, but It’s a Little Frustrating

The Kings have felt for several weeks as though they were running in place, unable to gain ground on the teams ahead of them in the Wester Conference playoff chase even though they’ve been getting solid goaltending and timely goals.

Given the chance to gain an inch Saturday, however, they fell back in a 2-2 tie with the Chicago Blackhawks before 18,118 at Staples Center, their 13th sellout.

Bob Probert, who had used his hands to fight Stu Grimson in the second period, also used them to score the tying goal with 3:52 left in the third period. The chance arose when King center Bryan Smolinski and Chicago center Kyle Calder collided behind the net, and the puck bounced to an unchecked Probert near the right post.

“I saw it, and it hit my glove, but it was too late,” said King goalie Felix Potvin, who made 30 saves in starting his 10th consecutive game. “It’s tough when you’re up, 2-1, with less than five minutes to go and you don’t win.”

The point enabled the Kings to keep pace with the seventh-place Phoenix Coyotes, who tied Montreal on Saturday. The Kings moved within four points of the eighth-place Edmonton Oilers, but the Oilers have a game in hand and will play that game today at Carolina.

The Kings had rallied to take a 2-1 lead on goals by Scott Thomas and Eric Belanger, but Probert left them frustrated at the end.

“I really thought we were going to win this game tonight,” Belanger said. “It came down to a bad bounce behind the net. We battled and killed penalties, and at least we got a point.”

Belanger had broken a 1-1 tie with a short-handed goal at 10:23 of the third period. He used his stick to block a shot by Chicago defenseman Jaroslav Spacek in the Kings’ end and raced up ice, slipping the puck past a sprawling Steve Passmore, his former King teammate.

Passmore, who became expendable when the Kings acquired Potvin from Vancouver and was dealt to Chicago on Feb. 28 for an eighth-round draft pick, made 23 saves in his first start since the trade.

The fans were elated--only to be deflated when the Blackhawks tied the game.

“It was almost like a moving pick, although Calder had the puck and there was nothing illegal about it,” King Coach Andy Murray said of the collision between Calder and Smolinski.

The frantic finish was unlike the relatively quiet start. The first period was scoreless and neither team got a penalty until 51 seconds into the second period, when Chicago defenseman Alexander Karpovtsev went off for holding King center Ian Laperriere. Although short-handed, the Blackhawks scored to take a 1-0 lead.

Kevin Dean began the play by dumping the puck into the corner. Eric Daze dug it out and threw it in front of the net, where it caromed off the foot of King defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky and to the stick of Chris Herperger, who lifted it over Potvin’s left shoulder at 2:29. It was the sixth short-handed goal scored against the Kings.

Another fruitless King power play late in the second period left fans restless and sparked some boos. However, the fans cheered at 17:35, when Thomas tied the game after forcing a turnover in Chicago’s end.

Thomas pounced when Spacek misplayed a pass from teammate Boris Mironov. Thomas stole the puck off Spacek’s stick and skated into the right circle before taking a wrist shot that went between Passmore’s leg pads. It was Thomas’ third goal and first since Jan. 2.

“I thought our foot soldiers were tremendous,” Murray said of Thomas and Belanger. “Our foot soldiers were good and some of our other players we count on were not. We need those guys. We need them now, there’s no question about it. There’s a responsibility that comes with that profile in a team, and that responsibility has to be there.”

Potvin, 6-2-2 with the Kings, can hardly have played better. But the Kings are still on the outside, looking in.

“If the teams in front of us keep winning, there’s not much we can do,” said defenseman Aaron Miller, who had five hits and three blocked shots in about 26 minutes. “All we can do is go out and play hard and win our games. I like the effort with this team.”

Said Laperriere: “We can’t say, ‘Should have, could have.’ We have a lot of big games in the next couple of weeks against the teams in front of us, and we have to be ready.”