Calgary Hangs a Shutout on Kings

CALGARY, Canada —  Talk about bad timing.

One of the newspapers here ran a story Sunday on how well King goalies Bob Janecyk and Darren Eliot have been playing.

Janecyk didn’t even make it through the first period of Sunday night’s game against the Calgary Flames. He gave up four goals on 15 shots and was pulled with 4:51 left in the first period.

The Flames scored three more goals against Eliot en route to an easy 7-0 win over the Kings at the Olympic Saddledome.

“I changed goalies because I wanted to see if I could wake our team up. We were zombies,” Kings Coach Pat Quinn said. “None of the goals were his (Janecyk’s) fault.”

It was the first time that the Kings have been shut out this season. The last time they were blanked was on Jan. 18, 1984 when they lost to goalie Tom Barrasso and the Buffalo Sabres, 4-0.

“We got exactly what we deserved. We played awful,” Kings center Bernie Nicholls said.

Flames goalie Reggie Lemelin made 29 saves in registering his first shutout since Jan. 15, 1981, when he beat Detroit, 10-0. It was the Flames’ first shutout since a 7-0 win over New Jersey on March, 14, 1983. But Don Edwards was in the nets for that game.

Lemelin was voted the first star of the game and a crowd of 16,683 fans chanted “Reggie, Reggie, Reggie.”

Said Lemelin: “We have been criticized so much this season for our defensive play and hopefully this (the shutout) will give us some confidence.”

Said Flames Coach Bob Johnson: “Reggie has played very well most of the season and then he slid a little. Now he’s won his last three games.”

The Kings’ best scoring chance came six minutes into the final period when right wing Jim Fox shot over an empty net.

“I got a perfect pass and I banged it,” Fox said. “Reggie was really clearing the front of the net all night long.”

Said Lemelin: “I was surprised to see them (the Kings) not pressing me.”

It was a costly loss for the Kings, who are fighting Calgary and Winnipeg for second place in the Smythe Division. The Kings (29-25-11), who have 15 games left in the regular season, trail the Flames (33-25-7) and Jets (33-26-7) by four points.

After playing one of their best games of the season in Friday night’s win over the Edmonton Oilers, the Kings played one of their worst games less than 48 hours later. The Kings were unbeaten in their first games (3-0-1) against the Flames.

“Why are we so up and down? If I had the answer I think I could bottle it and sell it for $1 million,” Kings captain Terry Ruskowski said.

But Janecyk was definitely not the reason the Kings were so flat against Calgary.

The first goal he allowed came after the Kings gave away the puck on a power-play and the other three goals were deflections which took bad hops.

“They were driving to the net and getting some good bounces,” Janecyk said. “They scored off backs and (bleeps).

“We weren’t ready and I don’t know why. Maybe it was because we had such a tough game against Edmonton the other night.”

At the end of the game, a minor scramble broke out when Calgary center Doug Riseborough apparently high-sticked King defenseman Mark Hardy. Both teams poured out onto the ice but no punches were thrown.

“I guess I was just frustrated,” Hardy said.

The Kings were never in the game as the Flames took command from the start.

The Kings gave up a shorthanded breakaway goal with 11:13 left in the first period. Riseborough scored his second goal of the season off a pass from Kent Nilsson, who had three assists. Janecyk slammed his stick to the ice in frustration.

Defenseman Paul Reinhart scored a power-play goal with 7:44 left in the first period on a shot which changed direction twice before going in.

Janecyk left the game after Calgary scored two goals in a 38-second span late in the period.

With 5:29 left in the period, defenseman Jamie Macoun gave the Flames a 3-0 lead when he scored his eighth goal of the season.

Right wing Tim Hunter scored with 4:51 left in the first period and Janecyk gave way to Eliot.

How badly did the Kings play in the first period? Well, they were outshot, 15-6.

Eliot gave up a goal with four seconds left in the second period. Center Jim Peplinski took a pass from Lanny McDonald and faked out Eliot to give the Flames a 5-0 lead going into the third period.

Right wing Hakan Loob scored his 27th goal of the season just 1:41 into the final period to make it 6-0.

Rookie center Joel Otto, who was recently called up from the minors, scored his first NHL goal at 13:52 of the third period.

King Notes The Flames have won three straight. . . . Kings center Marcel Dionne is just one-point away from his eighth 100-point season. . . . The Kings return home Tuesday night to play the Pittsburgh Penguins at the Forum.