Mishap Extends Stay in Toronto

A minor accident on the ground in Toronto involving the Kings’ chartered plane kept them there overnight Tuesday and delayed their arrival in Ottawa until Wednesday afternoon. Several players said the 1 1/2-hour wait and traveling the day of the game contributed to their fatigue in the third period Wednesday.

A section of a speeding cart used to transport baggage bumped into the rear stairs of the plane as it sat at the gate at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, bending the stairs beyond repair. No one was injured--most players weren’t aware of it or merely felt the plane sway--but the stairs couldn’t be raised to secure the plane for takeoff and no other plane was available.

That left Mike Altieri, the Kings’ manager of media relations, scrambling to find hotel rooms at midnight and reserve a commercial flight Wednesday morning. “My first travel crisis,” Altieri said.

Said Kevin Stevens: “At least [the plane] wasn’t in the air. Knowing the luck I’m having, it might have been in the air.”

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Wednesday’s game had a bizarre ending. Stevens and Ottawa defenseman Lance Pitlick tangled in the corner near the Ottawa net, a meeting that ended with Stevens punching Pitlick in the eye and opening a bloody cut. Pitlick lay face-down on the ice with Stevens hovering over him, but referee Dennis Larue allowed play to continue. Stevens skated away but Pitlick, dazed, couldn’t get up; when the play came back into the zone he gamely got to his feet and tried to defuse a King rush.

No penalties were called by Larue, who failed to keep the game from getting chippy. “I was expecting the whistle to blow and it never did,” Stevens said. “I don’t even remember what happened. How did it look on TV?”

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Forward Ian Laperriere, who aggravated his strained right shoulder Tuesday at Toronto, was to return to Los Angeles today to be examined by Dr. Ronald Kvitne. . . . Forward Vladimir Tsyplakov, recently returned from an abdominal injury, was held out of the lineup as a precaution. Coach Larry Robinson wants to avoid playing him in successive games. . . . With Laperriere and Tsyplakov out, Robinson used seven defensemen and 11 forwards and constantly scrambled his line combinations.