Coyotes Steal Victory From Kings in Overtime, 3-2

There were more Kings’ opportunities to make good than you’ll find in a Wall Street bull market.

* Ziggy Palffy, ready in front of Phoenix goalie Bob Essensa, who came up with the puck in his glove.

* Glen Murray, on a breakaway, with a shot through Essensa’s legs that stopped when he finally sat on it just short of the goal line.

* Fights, in which the Coyotes’ best player, Jeremy Roenick, traded himself for Dan Bylsma and Len Barrie, something no general manager would do.

Time and time again the Kings were close enough to Essensa to trade power-drink sips Sunday night, and . . . nothing.

And then it happened, as it so often does to teams that have lost five games in a row. A weird goal, credited to Roenick but actually scored by the Kings’ Bryan Smolinski at 3:18 of overtime gave Phoenix a 3-2 victory.

The game-winner came when Roenick fired a pass from behind the goal to Greg Adams, whose shot was turned back by Stephane Fiset, but the puck popped into the air, hitting the crossbar of the goal.

Jyrki Lumme swung at the puck, which stayed crazily in the air. Roenick reached over the goal with his stick and might have hit the puck.

Whoever hit it, Smolinski was trying to swat it away from a pack of Coyotes when it popped into the net.

“It looked like it was going to fall and hit ‘Fizz’ in the back and go in the net,” Smolinski said. “I had to hit it, considering. I couldn’t reach it with my hand.

”. . . I don’t know how it went in there. It went top shelf.

“What can you do? Just throw your hands in the air.”

And, perhaps, curse fate.

“It’s very disheartening,” Coach Andy Murray said. “We felt our team has played very hard in the last two games, and we don’t have a win to show for it. It’s obviously disappointing.”

The Kings had pushed the game into overtime when Luc Robitaille scored at 12:06 of the third period to gain a 2-2 tie at sold-out Staples Center.

Robitaille’s goal was the product of Jozef Stumpel’s highlight-film assist.

Stumpel took the puck near the Phoenix goal line, skated out, offering Phoenix’s Travis Green his back to protect the play, then found the Coyotes’ Juha Ylonen in his way.

Stumpel then did a pirouette, sized up the situation and figured if there were two players on him, somebody had to be open. He then threaded the pass across the ice to Robitaille, who knew exactly what to do with it.

“I think the pass surprised the goalie,” Robitaille said. “He gave me the short side.”

To that point, it was a night of chances, largely squandered in the Kings’ race with the calendar. Which will come first: the year 2000 or the team’s 1,000th victory?

It’s a race that has been going on since Dec. 11, when they won at Montreal.

Since then have come losses at New Jersey, New York and San Jose, and at home to Chicago and Phoenix.

The Kings had been at 39 points a l-o-o-o-o-n-g time.

It seemed they would be there longer when Green, who treats the Kings as though he has something personal against them, scored on a backhand shot from the faceoff circle, banging the puck off goalie Fiset’s right foot at 10:18 of the second period for a 2-1 lead.

It was Green’s second goal of the game and third of the season against the Kings.

He also had a power-play goal, scored on the Coyotes’ only opportunity in the first period. The Kings had a man advantage four times in that 20 minutes and managed not to take advantage of it at all.

By the time Green scored for the first time, the Kings had outshot Phoenix, 7-2, but to no avail. It was a sign of what would happen all night. By game’s end, the shot advantage was 37-25.

Still, the Kings had plainly come to trade muscle, if not goals, and Ian Laperriere out-muscled Phoenix’s Lumme in front of Essensa, then tipped in a shot by Marko Tuomainen from along the boards, well away from the net.

Defenseman Jere Karalahti also earned an assist on the play, his first in the NHL in only his second game, and helped set up a 1-1 tie at 14:36 of the first period.

And the opportunities kept on coming.

Five times, the Kings went on power plays. Zero times they scored.

To the Kings, it’s a point for a regulation tie, but it’s also an ongoing puzzle that has stretched through five consecutive losses.