Whalers Hold Off Kings for a 6-4 Victory

The electricity that filled the Forum Tuesday night for Magic Johnson’s return to the Lakers was nowhere to be found Wednesday night, when the Kings staged a flat performance before a sleepy and sometimes sullen crowd.

Geoff Sanderson scored twice in the third period, as the Hartford Whalers held off several King comeback attempts and hung on for a 6-4 victory, played before an announced crowd of 11,775.

The defeat left the Kings 1-7-2 in their last 10 games and extended goaltender Byron Dafoe’s personal winless streak to 0-5-1. Dafoe, who excelled early in the season, is 1-8-1 since Dec. 6.

The crowd, the third-smallest of the season, saw the Kings’ record over the last 20 games fall to 4-11-5. Their only victories in that span are two each over the Mighty Ducks and the Sharks. The last time the Kings (17-23-11) defeated another opponent was Dec. 13, when they routed Ottawa, 6-2.

Jari Kurri deflected a shot by Marty McSorley past Whaler goalie Sean Burke with 2:13 to play to cut Hartford’s lead to 5-4, but Sanderson took advantage of the Kings’ defensive confusion to score his 21st goal of the season off a close-in shot with 1:52 to play.

The Kings had scored first, when Eric Lacroix converted the rebound of a shot by McSorley 2:01 into the game, but the Whalers overtook them on goals by Adam Burt, rookie center Jeff O’Neill and left wing Brendan Shanahan.

The Kings cut the deficit to 3-2 at 17:50 of the second period, when Dmitri Khristich capped off a flurry of shots with his 17th goal of the season, during a power play. After Lacroix got a five-minute major penalty for boarding at 5:08 of the third period, Shanahan blasted a slap shot past Dafoe from the left faceoff circle for his 25th goal and a 4-2 Hartford lead.

The Kings responded with Khristich’s second goal, at 11:52, but Sanderson stole the puck from Pat Conacher in the Kings’ zone and broke in alone on Dafoe to rebuild the Whalers’ two-goal margin.

Several events that occurred off the ice were of potentially greater significance than the loss.

The Kings learned Wednesday that they will have to do without Tony Granato, their second-leading goal-scorer, for an indefinite period and that Kevin Stevens, who was acquired from Boston last Thursday for Rick Tocchet, has a lower-back strain that is likely to idle him until Saturday, at the soonest.

In addition, King executives spoke to Wayne Gretzky’s agent, Mike Barnett, but no face-to-face contract talks were scheduled. At a meeting last week to discuss his future, both sides said they expected to resume dicussions this week.

Granato, who has a concussion and an intra-cerebral hematoma (bleeding in the tissue deep inside the brain), is improving and might be discharged from Centinela Hospital today.