Devils Shelled by Kings : Gretzky, Taylor, Allison Lead Rout Against Burke, 9-3

The brawl that had been in the works all night finally erupted behind the New Jersey Devils’ net after the final buzzer, making a long night even longer for the Devils’ young goalie, Sean Burke.

After suffering through a 9-3 shelling at the hands of the Kings before a crowd of 11,505 at the Forum Tuesday night, Burke stayed on the ice for the duration of the battle.

Why not? King goalie Glenn Healy skated the length of the ice and joined in.

Burke had some frustrations to work out, anyway. All night long, the Kings had treated him more like a rookie than a playoff star. And he’s both.

Burke, 21, is still officially a rookie, even though he led the Devils within a game of the Stanley Cup finals last season. He played with the Canadian Olympic team until last March 1 before joining the Devils. He went 10-1 with a goals-against average of 3.05 the rest of the season.

But this season, he fell to 7-10-1 after his encounter with the high-scoring Kings.

Not that he was a bit timid in his first appearance at the Forum.

Burke, a 6-foot 3-inch, 205-pound youngster who is known to clear his crease if need be, got Wayne Gretzky riled early when he tripped him and then gave him a shove forward as Gretzky was trying to pick himself up off the ice.

He probably shouldn’t have done that. Gretzky ended up with 2 goals and 2 assists.

Mike Allison, who had just 1 goal before the game, also scored 2 goals. So did Dave Taylor. And Luc Robitaille, Dean Kennedy and Dale DeGray joined in the shelling.

The Kings raised their record to 16-9 as they moved back into second place in the Smythe Division, ahead of the Edmonton Oilers.

The Devils extended their winless streak to 6 games as they wrapped up a 4-game trip.

The game started slowly, got nasty in the second period and broke wide open in the third before all hell broke loss in the postgame fisticuffs.

Taylor gave the Kings a 1-0 lead at 13:05 of the first period, fighting off the check of Randy Velischek and then putting in the rebound of a shot by Robitaille.

Although the first period was rough, the second was rougher and packed with penalties--28 minutes for the Kings, figuring in a 10-minute misconduct to Ken Baumgartner, and 27 minutes for the Devils, including a 10-minute misconduct to David Maley and a 2-minute bench penalty.

Less than 4 minutes into the second period, the ice was littered with sticks and gloves as Kings and Devils squared off in pairs. But only Joe Cirella of the Devils and John Tonelli and Baumgartner of the Kings ended up in the penalty box with 2-minute roughing penalties.

Less than a minute later, Healy was given a 2-minute penalty for high-sticking after he Maley as he chased the puck behind the net.

So the Kings were 2 men down for 1 minute 5 seconds, but they killed killed that penalty.

After Devil defenseman Jamie Huscroft had wrestled Baumgartner to the ice, Huscroft picked up a 2-minute penalty for instigating a fight and 5 minutes for fighting. Baumgartner got a 5-minute penalty for fighting.

So the Kings had a power play. But the Devils killed that.

It was at 10:09 of the second period that Allison scored his first goal, deflecting a long slapshot by Bob Carpenter past Burke.

John MacLean put the Devils back within a goal when he held up on a shot and then lifted it past Healy.

Allison added his second goal on a power play after the bench minor, scoring on a rebound after a shot by Mike Krushelnyski. And Kennedy made it 4-1 with just 35 seconds left in the period.

But before the period was out, Marty McSorley had dropped his gloves and put up his dukes, shadow-boxing menacingly in the direction of Devil left winger Steve Rooney, who seemed to be expecting that reaction.

They both ended up with 2-minute penalties for unsportsmanlike conduct.

At the start of the third period, a goal by Patrik Sundstrom brought the Devils back within 2 goals, and at 4:25 of the period, MacLean scored his second goal on a power play to make it a 1-goal game.

But the Kings, the highest-scoring team in the league, didn’t leave it at that.

Gretzky made a pass from the top of the right circle to Taylor, who was skating straight at the net, and Taylor followed the puck right into the net in a heap at 5:57. Robitaille added a pretty goal of his own, skating just to the right of the Devils’ net while sweeping the puck to the right. Then he waited until Burke came out to meet the shot before slipping it between Burke and the post with a quick back-hand flick of the wrist.

The score went to 7-3 when Gretzky tucked in a rebound of a shot by Steve Duchesne.

King Notes

Goalie Rollie Melanson cleared waivers Tuesday. His future with the club is uncertain. . . . Goalie Glenn Healy continues to lead the NHL in victories with 13.