Kings at a Loss After Blowing a 4-0 Lead

If the Kings fail to make the playoffs this spring, they might rue their slow start to the season or perhaps a costly loss yet to come.

But they’ll almost certainly curse their February trip to the desert.

They flew out of Arizona late Friday night after squandering a 4-0 lead, wasting a hat trick by Ziggy Palffy and losing in overtime to the Phoenix Coyotes, 6-5, in front of a sellout crowd of 16,210 at the America West Arena.

Brian Savage, who had started the Coyotes’ improbable comeback with a seemingly harmless goal late in the second period, scored the winner 4 minutes 26 seconds into the five-minute overtime after the Kings’ Mathieu Schneider was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking Daymond Langkow.

The one point the Kings earned for taking the game into overtime could come in handy in the tightly contested playoff race, but it gave them little comfort after they had given up more than five goals for the first time this season.

“I thought they were dead in the water,” King Coach Andy Murray said of the Coyotes, “and we just gave it to them. They were determined and started to play a little bit reckless and we didn’t play smart to take advantage of it. Their goals were goals that we gave them. I thought we laid it on a platter for them....

“This is one more point to add to our total, but certainly when you’re leading, 4-0, there’s no consolation in only getting one point.”

After Jason Allison had given the Kings a four-goal advantage with 8:25 to play in the second period, the Coyotes scored three goals in less than 21/2 minutes to make the score 4-3, then scored two more in the first 71/2 minutes of the third period.

“We didn’t really get comfortable,” the Kings’ Kelly Buchberger said, “but we didn’t go and try to ... go right back at them. They came out hard and generated a really aggressive effort and it just steamrolled.”

Palffy tied the score with his third power-play goal of the game--and the Kings’ fourth--with 10:02 remaining in the third period, giving the Slovak winger his first hat trick since Nov. 28, 2000, against the New York Rangers.

But the Coyotes continued to pressure King goaltender Felix Potvin, who was playing on consecutive nights for the first time this season.

Late in the overtime, with the Coyotes again on the attack, Schneider leveled Langkow from behind in front of the net.

Nine seconds later, Savage scored on a rebound.

Schneider disputed the call but acknowledged the King collapse.

“We know where we went wrong out there; it’s not rocket science,” he said. “As soon as we scored the fourth goal we kind of backed off into a shell.

“But you’ve got to give them a lot of credit, the way they came back. They didn’t hang their heads. They came out hard and got a couple of quick ones and we were on our heels all of a sudden.”

The Coyotes, who had lost two consecutive games after winning five of six, are one of several teams bunched with the Kings in the Western Conference playoff race, but Murray said that didn’t make the game any more important.

“I don’t think so,” he said before the first of two games matching the teams in the last six days before the Olympic break. “It’s just a matter of trying to get two points every night you play and getting closer to the number that will get us in.

“I take the mind-set that, I don’t care how many points other teams get. It’s what we get ultimately [that matters most].

“The only thing that matters is, we’ve got to get points. We’re not going to be in the playoffs where we are now.”

In a mild surprise, Murray went with Potvin after saying earlier in the week that backup Jamie Storr would start Friday if Potvin played Thursday.

“He gets paid to be our No. 1 guy,” Murray said of Potvin, who has started in all but one of the Kings’ last 13 games.

“We have all the confidence in the world in Jamie, but we feel it’s the right thing to do [playing Potvin].”