Legace Is Good, Lightning’s Puppa Is Better

They looked at each other from opposite ends of the ice, and finally Manny Legace blinked.

The King goalie’s bid for his first outright NHL shutout ended in the third period Friday night when Daymond Langkow popped a rebounded puck over him at 2:21.

At that, a shutout would have earned Legace only a tie, for Daren Puppa proved more than his equal, turning back 27 King shots in Tampa Bay’s 3-0 win before 10,968 at the Great Western Forum.

“We had some great chances, and Puppa made some great saves,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “I thought we played hard, and I was concerned about that because sometimes when you come off a long road trip, it’s hard to play that first game back.”

It’s particularly hard to play against the Lightning, a hard-checking team that had beaten the Kings, 3-2, only a week before at Tampa in the second game of the five-game, eight-day trip that ended Wednesday night in New Jersey.

“I have to give Larry Robinson a lot of credit,” Lightning Coach Jacques Demers said of his former Montreal teammate. Robinson was also Demers’ assistant when they were at New Jersey.

“They came off a long road trip and didn’t give us an inch.”

The decisive goal came after a King mistake in their defensive zone.

Tampa Bay had for all intents and purposes iced the puck, but the Kings’ Sean O’Donnell skated over it near the end boards, keeping play alive.

The puck was swept out to the Lightning’s Alex Selivanov on the extreme right wing, and his shot into traffic in front of the net was turned back by Legace.

But the puck popped into the air, coming to rest on Langkow’s stick, and it soon became his first goal of the season.

Seemingly undaunted by the end of his shutout string at 68 minutes 50 seconds, Legace promptly rejected two point-blank shots by Lightning 18-year-old rookie Vincent Lacavalier.

The Lightning picked up empty-net goals by Darcy Tucker and Cory Cross in the final minute with Legace off the ice in favor of an extra offensive player who accomplished nothing.

It was the second time this season that Tucker had scored on the Kings, though this one was easier on Legace. The first time, a week before in Tampa, Tucker had skated over Legace in the crease, scoring and administering a mild concussion on the play.

The King goalie had been helped along in the second period by a little luck. Make that a lot of luck, on a shot by Andrei Nazarov at 8:30.

Nazarov sailed in, largely unhindered, on the right wing and fired at the King goalie, who stopped the shot but failed to turn it back. The puck slid lazily from left to right along the crease, inches from the goal line, and Legace was sprawled on the left side.

A scrum developed in front of the net, with the puck still there to be had until Legace reached back across the crease with his stick hand and swept it out of harm’s way.

To make sure it stayed there, Russ Courtnall fell on it, stopping play and giving Legace a chance to breathe again.

On the other end of the ice, Puppa went largely unchallenged until the Kings went on the power play at 15:33 of the second.

Philippe Boucher, Doug Bodger and Luc Robitaille sent in long-range drives, with Kings in front of the net. But Puppa turned back the efforts.

The Kings seemed to go into a funk for about eight minutes after Langkow’s goal but broke out of it with seven minutes to play when Puppa turned back one shot, only to see the puck pop into the air. Robitaille’s swing at the pitch was a miss, with Puppa at his mercy.

At game’s end, the Kings had killed off four penalties, giving them a streak of 38 in a row, but it came in a loss that brought them back to .500 (4-4-2) through the season’s first 10 games.

“There’s no way they should win that game,” Robitaille said. “We’ve got to find a way to win those.”