Kings Can’t Handle Hot Flames, 5-3

The Kings said it would be like this. They said the Calgary Flames, long out of the playoff picture, would put up a fight.

And fight the Flames did Saturday night, scoring three goals in the third period of a 5-3 victory over the Kings in front of 17,046 in the Pengrowth Saddledome and sending the visitors home winless from a four-game trip.

League scoring leader Jarome Iginla scored his 45th and 46th goals for the Flames, his sixth and seventh against the Kings, who managed only a tie in four games against the Flames this season, losing the other three.

“We didn’t expect anything less than what they gave us,” said King defenseman Mattias Norstrom, whose second-period goal was only his second of the season and ninth in 521 NHL games. “We can’t just match that in spurts, though, against a team like that with nothing to lose.”

The Kings, who fell to seventh in the Western Conference playoff race, also wasted a goal by Cliff Ronning, his first point in seven games with the Kings.

To add injury to insult, they played the last two periods without defenseman Aaron Miller, who suffered a right rib strain when hit from behind late in the first period, and the last few minutes without winger Kelly Buchberger, who suffered a bruised right quadriceps when he blocked a shot.

Both will be reevaluated today.

Afterward, however, all King Coach Andy Murray wanted to talk about was a questionable elbowing penalty against King center Jason Allison with 1:46 to play, an infraction that led to the Flames’ third power-play goal.

The Kings, who gave up as many as three power-play goals only once in their first 72 games, gave up three in two of their last three games on an 0-3-1 trip.

“It’s ridiculous,” Murray said of the call against Allison, whose goal with 2:57 to play had trimmed the Flames’ lead to 4-3. “It’s totally ridiculous for this time of the year. The guy’s trying to line him up and because he knocks the guy down [he gets a penalty]? His elbow never does come up. They just collide.

“At that point in the game, that [call] shouldn’t happen.”

Murray suggested that Andy VanHellemond, the league’s director of officiating, should challenge the work of referees Stephane Auger and Mike Leggo.

VanHellemond attended the game, and Murray sought him out afterward, describing VanHellemond as a friend.

“It’s obviously my job to look at my guys when they don’t perform, question what they do and challenge them to be better,” Murray said. “I want to see if Andy does the same with his guys.”

The Flames, led by Iginla and goaltender Roman Turek, had been one of the NHL’s most surprising success stories in the first two months of the season.

But since their 13-2-2-2 start catapulted them into second place in the Western Conference, a position they last held Nov. 27, they are 16-29-10-1 and have fallen to 11th, out of the playoff picture for the sixth consecutive season.

They were 1-6-3 in their last 10 games before Saturday.

“At this time of year, players are fighting for jobs,” Norstrom said before the game. “You see it in Minnesota going 6-2-1-1 in its last 10 games [before Friday]. You see Columbus knocking some teams off....

“We’ve all got something to fight for, and if you’re on a team that’s out of the playoffs, you know changes are going to be made and you don’t want to be one of the guys they get rid of, so you want to leave a good impression.”

The Flames opened a 2-0 lead on an even-strength goal by Chris Clark with 52 seconds to play in the first period and a power-play goal by Iginla with 16:08 to play in the second.

The Kings answered with second-period goals by Ronning and Norstrom, the goal by Ronning giving the veteran left wing his 11th 50-point season.

But third-period goals by Rob Niedermeyer and Dean McAmmond gave the Flames a 4-2 lead with 3:54 to play.

“Obviously, we made some mistakes we shouldn’t have and we didn’t kill our penalties,” Murray said. “You do that and you’re going to lose to teams that work hard.”