Kings Continue Their Slide in Vancouver

VANCOUVER, Canada —  Costly turnovers and ill-timed penalties once again plagued the Kings as they extended their monthlong road losing streak to seven games with a 4-3 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night.

Pavel Bure broke out of a scoring slump with two goals and Alexander Mogilny added a goal and two assists as the Canucks ended a season-high four-game losing streak by holding off a late charge by the Kings before 16,125 at General Motors Place.

The injury-plagued Kings never gave up but they could not overcome three goals by the Canucks in the final seven minutes of the second period and dropped to 4-15-1 in their last 20 games.

Trailing, 4-1, going into the third period, the Kings scored three late goals but a goal by Jeff Shevalier was disallowed because Ray Ferraro was ruled to be in the crease too early.

“We can’t get down like that, but at least we did come back,” King defenseman Doug Zmolek said. “We’re just trying to find our way out of this. This has been a bad slump. You have to take the positives in that we had a chance to win the game or at least tie it up.”

With Rob Blake, Matt Johnson, Yanic Perreault, Vitali Yachmenev, Craig Johnson, Sean O’Donnell and Jan Vopat sidelined with injuries, the Kings’ problems continue to grow with each loss.

Vancouver, which had been 3-9-1 going into Thursday’s game, also fielded a lineup depleted by injuries, but the Canucks have Bure and Mogilny--two offensive players who can make the difference between a win and a loss.

“They never got touched all night,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “You can’t afford to have good players like that skating around without someone running into them.”

The Canucks started attacking early against the Kings’ defense--which was playing its third game without Blake. Goaltender Stephane Fiset was up to the task for Vancouver’s first eight shots before King defenseman Jaroslav Modry was called for holding the Canucks’ Markus Naslund behind the Kings’ goal at 6:17.

One minute later, Vancouver scored a power-play goal when from the left circle Mogilny passed to Bure, who beat Fiset to his glove side from outside the right post at 7:17. It was Bure’s first goal since Dec. 13 against St. Louis.

The Canucks took a 2-0 lead on a short-handed goal by Mogilny, who picked up a loose puck and outskated the Kings’ Philippe Boucher to score on a breakaway at 13:33 of the second period.

The Kings finally got on the scoreboard at the 15:34 mark when Eddie Olczyk rebounded a shot by Ferraro for his 10th goal.

Instead of building on their momentum, the Kings quickly fell behind by two goals less than a minute later when Bure pounced on the rebound of a shot by Mogilny over Fiset at 16:26.

The Canucks took a 4-1 lead with 2:08 remaining in the period when Donald Brashear beat Fiset from the right circle for his fourth goal.

In the third period, the Kings’ Kai Nurminen scored his seventh goal when he knocked in Dimitri Khristich’s pass from the crease to make the score, 4-2.

With 1:47 remaining, Fiset was pulled and the Kings cut the Canucks’ lead to 4-3 on Shevalier’s first goal of the season at the 18:26 mark. But, it was too little and too late for the Kings, who dropped their third in a row.