Kings Come Up Just Short

If you were outside Staples Center late Monday night, the sounds you heard coming from inside the arena were not pleasant.

Not unless you were a fan of the Calgary Flames, who added to the Kings’ woes with a 2-0 victory, highlighted by a successful two-minute 5-on-3 penalty kill late in the second period that had most of the 15,105 fans in attendance booing at the top of their lungs.

Calgary goaltender Roman Turek was on top of his game, making 26 saves to earn his fourth shutout of the season, but the Kings’ poor execution definitely played a part in going scoreless in six power-play opportunities.

With a chance to win their second game in a row, the Kings again failed to win a game they needed to have despite a solid effort on defense that kept the league’s top scorer, Jarome Iginla, in check until he scored his 23rd goal on an empty netter with 1:11 remaining.

“It’s always a challenge when you step on the ice to play a guy like [Iginla],� King defenseman Jaroslav Modry said before the game. “The key is to do the right things not to give him anything to feast on.�

Iginla and his linemates didn’t have too many chances against King goaltender Felix Potvin, who played well in making 18 saves. But the key to winning hockey games is scoring goals and the Kings didn’t have any luck getting the puck past Turek.

And when they did, Calgary had a defenseman such as Robyn Regehr there to make the save like he did on a loose puck headed into the Calgary net in the second period.

“You have to like a team like Calgary,� King forward Ian Laperriere said. “They are a young team that plays hard with a lot of emotion. Look at Iginla. He has 23 goals and he’s not Wayne Gretzky offensively. He just works hard and it’s good to see a hard worker get rewarded.�

The Kings played their second consecutive game without forward Ziggy Palffy, who did not play after tests revealed that he suffered a broken rib when he was injured in the second period of Saturday’s game against Nashville.

Palffy, who missed two weeks earlier this season because of back spasms, might not return until after Christmas.

But even without Palffy, the Kings had their scoring chances. Bryan Smolinski had one in the first period.

Steve Heinze and Aaron Miller had a couple in the second, and Jason Allison had some good looks in the third.

“Our game is what we showed at the end of last year and that’s when everybody plugs in, takes the body, and hits and skates,� Modry said. “We have to make it miserable for the other team to play against us.�

It looked like it was not going to be an easy night for the Kings when Calgary handed them a power-play opportunity 37 seconds into the game and they failed to get off a shot on goal.

Then, to make their situation even tougher, the Kings found themselves down a goal before the first period ended when Jeff Cowan scored on a rebound to give Calgary a 1-0 lead at 15:38. Cowan’s first goal of the season was not a thing of beauty but he was at the right place at the right time to slap Scott Nichol’s rebound into Potvin, who then mistakenly knocked the puck into his own net.

“I thought it was a very high-tempo game,� King Coach Andy Murray said. “It was a very draining game, physically .... But from our perspective, our inability to score on our power plays, especially at the end of the second period, proved to be very costly.�

Scoring the first goal and winning is something Calgary has done well as they improved to 10-1-2-1 when they have done so.

“The key for us with Calgary is to play our game,� defenseman Mattias Norstrom said. “Let them worry about our top players. We should carry the game against them, instead of concentrating on shutting them down. That’s how we’ve been successful. We’ve been making them play our game.

“We can’t be waiting for teams to make mistakes.�

Unfortunately for the Kings, the few mistakes they did make cost them.