Kings lose goalie, game

Clarity has come to the Kings’ troubled goaltending situation, even before the San Jose Sharks muddied the picture Thursday night.

Mathieu Garon will tote what hopes the Kings have of getting into the Stanley Cup playoff race this season, after the career path Dan Cloutier had been on hit another pothole Thursday. Cloutier will undergo surgery today in Colorado to repair torn cartilage in his hip, leaving Garon in the crease, possibly for the remainder of the season.

How that might play out depends on the view. Those who saw Garon’s previous three starts will be encouraged. Those among the announced 17,054 at Staples Center who witnessed the Sharks’ 5-2 victory might have a few reservations.

This was another A-for-effort, zero-for-points game by the Kings that spiraled away from them when the Sharks scored three goals in nine shots in the second period, two of which seemed stoppable.

By the time Mark Bell, Milan Michalek and Patrick Marleau completed that trifecta, Kings fans were ready to shower Garon with the same love and affection they previously reserved for Cloutier this season -- the boos and catcalls following him to the dressing room.

“There’s going to be a lot of work for Matty,” defenseman Aaron Miller said. “Fortunately, I don’t think we have a lot of back-to-back games.”

The loss may douse some of the we-can-get-there talk the Kings and Coach Marc Crawford had begun to voice after going 4-2-1 since Christmas. Those new-year new hopes were given a dose of reality.

“Only winning counts,” defenseman Mattias Norstrom said. “You see Phoenix and Vancouver and Chicago go on streaks and move up. It’s all about the streaks and we need one.”

Any chance the Kings had Thursday began to unravel in the time it took Bell to go from the penalty box to a group hug.

He bolted from the box, took a pass and waited out Garon before glancing a shot off his leg pad to tie the score, 1-1.

With the Kings’ Sean Avery in the box, the Sharks flexed their NHL-best power play, with Michalek knocking in a rebound. Marleau then seemed to catch Garon by surprise, flicking in a wrist shot for a 3-1 lead.

That put the Sharks on the road to victory. The Kings were left in 13th place, nine points out of a playoff spot.

“I can’t give up a third goal like that,” Garon said. “Especially not in a 2-1 game. I have to be on my game.”

Possibly for the remainder of the schedule, now that Cloutier’s season has gone from bad to worse to surgery. He was acquired last summer, anointed as the team’s No. 1 goaltender and given a two-year, $6.2-million contract extension.

Then the season began.

Cloutier ranks last among NHL goaltenders a 3.98 goals-against average and .860 save percentage and has not played since a 7-0 loss to the Nashville Predators on Dec. 23. This is the second consecutive lost season for Cloutier, who was limited to 13 games with Vancouver in 2005-06 because of surgery on his left knee.

Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi said that Cloutier would be out “indefinitely.”

Garon seemed up to the challenge his previous three games, allowing only four goals in two victories and an overtime loss. He was a wall at times Thursday, making 26 saves. But the three-goal glitch took the Kings out of the game.

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chris.foster@latimes.com