King Loss Is Cause for Alarm

Talk about rude awakenings. There were two Wednesday for the Kings, one in the morning and one at night.

There was the intrusive fire alarm that went off at 8 a.m. at the team hotel, sending sleepy-eyed and irritated players to the lobby to wait for the all-clear signal.

More alarming was the Kings’ 3-2 overtime loss to one of the league’s worst teams, the Columbus Blue Jackets, before an ecstatic crowd of 16,221 at Nationwide Arena.

Less than 24 hours after a solid victory over the Minnesota Wild, the Kings fell into a strangely problematic pattern against the punchless Blue Jackets and received more erratic goaltending from Roman Cechmanek, who gift-wrapped David Vyborny’s game-winner 1:58 into overtime.

But this being hockey, the Kings took the point awarded to overtime losers and remained in seventh place in the Western Conference.

Cechmanek’s latest gaffe prevented the Kings from getting anything more than a point.

The Kings dominated the first two minutes of overtime and outshot the Blue Jackets, 3-0, until Cechmanek went behind the net to pass the puck off the boards to King defenseman Jaroslav Modry. Vyborny came screaming in from the right side, intercepted the pass and continued around for a backhander into an empty net.

The blunder was the second in three games for Cechmanek, who surrendered a 65-foot goal to Jarome Iginla in a 4-4 tie Feb. 3 against the Calgary Flames.

“I’ve seen a couple of bad plays he’s made, like the Iginla goal, and I knew that I had a chance,” Vyborny said. “I gave him a little fake and the [puck] was mine.”

Said Columbus left wing Rick Nash: “I have no idea what Cechmanek was thinking.”

The Kings had plenty of thoughts after the game.

Coach Andy Murray pointed out that the Kings had only one power play to Columbus’ six, and cited an identical 6-1 disparity when the teams played Jan. 16, a game the Kings also lost in overtime, 3-2.

“That’s two times we’ve played in Columbus and had one power play,” Murray said. “That’s ridiculous.”

Cechmanek, for his part, took the blame for the game-ending play.

“I think I had to pass very quick [to Modry],” he said. “I had to play a little quicker. It was my fault.”

The Blue Jackets, no threat for a playoff berth for a fourth consecutive season since their inception, continued their recent dominance of the Kings and improved to 7-0-1 since the Kings last beat Columbus in February 2002.

It was a night of firsts for a team that is one spot above last place in the West. Defenseman Jaroslav Spacek scored his first goal of the season and defenseman Aaron Johnson scored for the first time in his brief career.

With Columbus down, 1-0, Spacek took a cross-ice pass from Nash and scored a power-play goal from the right circle 35 seconds into the second period.

Johnson, in his sixth NHL game, gave the Blue Jackets a 2-1 lead at 8:27 of the second period after Nikolai Zherdev spotted him alone and zipped a pass through the slot to the left circle. Johnson’s snap shot beat Cechmanek through the legs.

King defenseman Joe Corvo scored the equalizer, skating backdoor without the puck and one-timing Eric Belanger’s pass at 9:54 of the third period.

But the Kings will have to be satisfied with one point.

“A little good, a little bad,” right wing Trent Klatt said. “At least we got a point.”

*

Forward Martin Straka has started skating without contact for the first time since undergoing surgery Jan. 22 to have cartilage removed from both knees.... The Kings have three more games before the end of a season-long seven-game road stretch that was broken up partly by the All-Star break.