Kings Have a Late Start but Finish Off Bruins, 6-2

With every game, the Kings are picking up momentum, confidence, victories and believers.

The Kings are for real. With a 6-2 victory over the Boston Bruins Wednesday night, the Kings are also 4-0.

Believe it. The Kings have beaten some very strong hockey teams to get this far.

It was a pretty convincing show they put on for the 11,863 fans at the Forum. Through two periods of close-checking, Boston-style defensive hockey, the Kings were able to hold their own. The game was tied. But when the Kings’ dazzling offense came to life in the third period, it was no contest.

Boston Coach Terry O’Reilly said that his team made key mistakes and then lost its composure. He declined to go into gory, sad detail about his team’s injuries, which are many. But he was taking nothing away from the Kings’ offensive punch.

Asked about the effect Wayne Gretzky has had on the suddenly invincible Kings, O’Reilly said: “He’s the greatest offensive threat in the league right now. And it’s more than that. It’s the commitment from the new ownership that has really instilled a lot of enthusiasm from the rest of the team. It really sparks their offense when he gets the puck.”

But it was a goal by Luc Robitaille, the go-ahead goal 2 minutes 55 seconds into the third period, that started the Kings on their scoring frenzy.

Robitaille scored on a mystifying shot from the left side of the Bruin net--straight out to the side. Breaking into a huge grin, Robitaille later said: “I’ll tell you the truth about that. I couldn’t even see the net. But I knew that their goalie (Andy Moog) had just reached toward the other side and he was out a little bit. I just shot it, and I think it hit the post and then his leg. I was just guessing that he’d still be out there. I guess I guessed right.”

When the puck turned up behind Moog, no one looked more surprised than Moog himself.

The Kings seem to be leading that kind of a charmed existence.

Before another 5 minutes ticked off the clock, the Kings fired in 3 more goals. Mike Krushelnyski scored on a 20-foot shot, redirecting the shot that Larry Playfair slapped from the left point. Gretzky scored his second goal of the night while skating left to right in front of the Bruin net, taking a pass that Dave Taylor aimed from the right corner, and flipping the puck past Moog. And Bernie Nicholls made it 5-1 on a short shot in front of the busy Bruin goalie.

Four goals in 4 minutes 56 seconds.

The Bruins’ Steve Kasper sneaked a puck past King goalie Glenn Healy, who was screened for the moment, to cut the Kings’ lead to 3, but in the final seconds, Robitaille scored his second goal of the game to make it a 4-goal victory with a strong assist from Taylor.

Taylor was threatening Moog straight on, and Moog came out of the goal a few feet to meet him. Taylor made the quick pass to Robitaille, who was waiting at the right corner of the net to slip the puck behind the goalie.

All that after a scoreless first period and a 1-1 second period.

It was Gretzky who finally scored for the Kings, 14 minutes 30 seconds into the second period, with a short-handed goal that tied the game. Nicholls got a glove on a pass that came flying at him and put the puck back on the ice. Nicholls might have tried to take it all the way himself, but, instead, he passed to Gretzky, who skated straight in on Moog and slapped the shot over Moog’s outstretched arm.

Nicholls said: “I had The Great One with me. He’s got 588 goals, so it didn’t take me too long to get it over to him.”

Nicholls had the number exactly right, but when it comes to Gretzky, who’s counting?

Gretzky, Moog’s teammate at Edmonton before Moog was traded to Boston last March, said he knew Moog was thinking that he might pass it back to Nicholls. Gretzky wasn’t at all sure that knowing Moog gave him the advantage there.

“He knows me pretty well, too,” Gretzky said. “It used to be about 50-50.”

Moog said: “He’s Wayne, no matter what he’s wearing.”

And Healy, who watched the goal from the safe distance of the other net, sympathetically listed that goal in the string of others that Moog lost, saying: “Wayne Gretzky, all alone in front of you . . . “

Healy started in goal for the third straight game and faced 35 shots to get his third straight victory. That after he faced 47 and 37 in his first two. And he said, once again, that he wasn’t worried about whether his teammates would ever score. “With the firepower we have, I’m never worried about that,” he said.

The Bruins scored first, of course. The Kings have given up the first goal in all 4 games this season. Right winger Keith Crowder scored the Bruin goal 1:05 into the second period, taking a pass from defenseman Michael Thelven and tucking a short backhanded shot into the Kings’ net.

King Notes

Kings defenseman Dale DeGray, recently acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs, suffered a sprained right knee Wednesday night in a collision in front of the Kings’ goal while helping to kill a penalty in the first period. . . . Defenseman Dean Kennedy was unable to dress for the game Wednesday because of the sprained left knee he had suffered Sunday night against the New York Islanders. . . . Going into the game against the Bruins, Wayne Gretzky led the NHL with 10 points. Gretzky and teammate Bernie Nicholls were tied for the lead in assists with 6 each. . . . The Kings’ scoring streak went to 175 straight games.