Kings Waste Opportunity

King Coach Larry Robinson is not one to take a defeat well, but Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues bothered him a little more than usual for a couple of reasons.

After putting together a 10-1-2 run that closed the gap between them and the Blues to four points in the race for fourth place in the Western Conference, the Kings failed to make up more ground with their most disappointing effort in weeks before 16,005 at the Great Western Forum, their third consecutive home sellout crowd.

The Kings blew a 2-1 lead by allowing two goals within 10 seconds late in the second period, thanks to a couple of mental mistakes, and then completed their poor showing by giving up two more goals in the third.

“This was a huge game for us,” Robinson said. “We had three or four guys who didn’t come to play today, who didn’t play up to par.

“The bottom line is that St. Louis was hungrier than we were today.”

St. Louis, which would face the Kings in the first round of the playoffs if they started today, now holds a six-point edge in the battle for the final home-ice advantage playoff position.

With Grant Fuhr, the Blues’ No. 1 goaltender, not in the lineup because of knee surgery, backup Jamie McLennan made the start and faced only 19 shots.

The Blues launched 38 at King goaltender Stephane Fiset.

Geoff Courtnall, Jim Campbell and Pavol Demitra each had a goal and two assists for the Blues, and Pierre Turgeon and Steve Duchesne each added a goal and an assist.

St. Louis is 2-0-1 against the Kings this season.

“This is as big as it gets because it was a four-point game,” St. Louis Coach Joel Quenneville said. “It was like [the Kings] were going to go right by us [in the standings].

“They’re the hottest team in the league and we responded to the challenge.”

Something the Kings definitely did not do.

After falling behind, 1-0, on a first-period, power-play goal by Duchesne, the Kings scored twice in the second period. Rob Blake scored from the left point at 7:43 and Glen Murray teamed with Matt Johnson on a give-and-go to give the Kings a 2-1 lead at 16:06.

That’s when the Kings began to self-destruct.

First, defenseman Aki Berg had trouble clearing the puck out of the Kings’ zone and St. Louis quickly capitalized when Courtnall skated untouched into the slot to score at 17:43.

Then, after scoring his goal, Courtnall--the older brother of the Kings’ Russ Courtnall--began taunting the Kings and was knocked to the ice by the Kings’ Sean O’Donnell, who received a roughing call.

The Blues took a 3-2 lead when Turgeon made a centering pass for Courtnall that deflected off Blake past Fiset into the Kings’ net at 17:53.

“We missed our assignment and, bang, it’s in the net,” Robinson said. “Then, we take a bad penalty, bang, two goals and there’s your game.”

Things got worse for the Kings in the third period. When Campbell scored the Blues’ fourth goal at 15:42, the Kings had only four skaters on the ice. The miscue was blamed on a bench communication problem.

“I called up Stump’s [center Jozef Stumpel] line and I don’t know if he didn’t hear me,” Robinson said.

“I thought I called him, but he didn’t jump out onto the play.”

St. Louis finished the scoring with 1:18 left when Demitra deflected in a pass from Courtnall for the Blues’ third power-play goal.