Kings Still Unable to Get It Straight

Two is too much for the Kings.

Impressive winners over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night but playing again without injured center Jason Allison, they lost Monday night to the San Jose Sharks, 3-0, and still haven’t won consecutive games since mid-December.

In front of 16,126 at Staples Center, they fell into 12th place in the Western Conference when they lost for the 14th time (and were shut out for the fourth time) in 18 games, failing to put any of their 32 shots past Evgeni Nabokov.

Calling the lackluster effort “a step back” from the victory over the Devils, King captain Mattias Norstrom said, “We have to be consistent in our effort. We can’t just have one good game and think that things will take care of themselves.”

They fell behind against the Sharks, 2-0, in the first 10 minutes. Said Norstrom: “They came out hard, and in the desperate situation we’re in we’ve got to respond to that, and we did not.”

Teammate Ian Laperriere was more succinct: “We came out soft.”

On a brighter note, they won’t have long to wait for a chance to redeem themselves. The Kings and Sharks, who meet again tonight at San Jose’s HP Pavilion, are playing their eighth home-and-home series, a once- or twice-a-season NHL rarity that often adds spice to already intense rivalries.

“I think when you have back-to-back games, it’s like living with your brother,” King Coach Andy Murray said before the game. “You’re around him too much and there ends up being some battles.

“Instead of a carry-over from one period or one shift, it’s a carry-over into the next game too. You’ve got more chances to whack the guy back.”

While the Kings have fallen out of a playoff spot in trying to overcome an inordinate number of injuries over the last five weeks, the Sharks are still trying to dig out from an 8-12-2-2 start. The stumble out of the gate by a team expected to challenge for the Stanley Cup led to the firing of Darryl Sutter and the hiring of Ron Wilson as coach in early December. Under Wilson, the Sharks are 10-6-4-3.

“That this team is where they are right now is hard to believe,” Murray said of the Sharks, “because they haven’t been beset by a lot of injuries.”

The Kings wish they could say the same.

Allison, third on the team with 28 points, sat out for the 24th time in 50 games after suffering a strained hip flexor during Saturday night’s 2-1 victory over the Devils, a result of overcompensating for his knee injury, Murray said. Allison did not make the trip to San Jose for tonight’s game either.

With four other King regulars also sidelined because of injuries, the Sharks attacked early. Owen Nolan took advantage of Alexander Frolov’s high-sticking penalty, scoring a power-play goal only 2 minutes 31 seconds into the game.

King goaltender Felix Potvin, with his right skate, stopped the shot from the left faceoff circle, only to have the puck flip into the air and settle into the net.

Midway through the period, the Sharks increased their lead to 2-0 on a shot that caromed off Potvin’s glove, the goaltender unable to corral a 55-foot blast from the blue line by Bryan Marchment. The goal was the first in more than a year for Marchment, ending a 78-game drought that dated to Jan. 21, 2002.

Another long shot and another rare goal made the score 3-0 at 6:18 of the second period, Matt Bradley’s shot from the right point giving him his first goal in 43 games since March 16.