Kings Miss Another Great Opportunity

WASHINGTON —  A good trip crossed the threshold to greatness Saturday night, matching the standard set by Andy Murray.

Then it went back out the door.

A good trip would be three wins in five games, opined Murray, the Kings’ coach for all five of those games now.

A great trip would be four wins, but second-period goals by Luc Robitaille and Marko Tuomainen were matched by third-period scores by Washington’s Peter Bondra and Chris Simon in a 2-2 tie before an announced crowd of 17,155 at MCI Center.

“I told the guys this was a few steps from being a great trip,” Murray said. “We were a few steps from being a good trip.”

In other words, it was in the no-man’s-land between goodness and greatness, territory unvisited by the Kings in quite a while.

“We got a point,” said defenseman Rob Blake, who had a major role in keeping it. “The main thing is that we’ve got to win those games when we’re up, 2-0. . . . It looks like we’re going the right way though.”

The Kings led in the third period in both Wednesday’s loss at Florida and Saturday’s tie at Washington, and the two-goal advantage against the Capitals--who were playing their second game in as many nights--seemed sufficient.

“If you’re one goal behind in the third period in this league, you’re pretty much toast,” Washington Coach Ron Wilson said. “I feel pretty good about this one.”

The tie was fashioned when the Capitals came out in the third period and hammered at King goalie Stephane Fiset, who turned back point-blank shots by Jan Bulis and Jaroslav Svejkovsky until he had no chance at a power-play goal by Bondra at 4:03.

Simon matched Bondra by sending back a long rejection of a shot by Joe Sacco at 11:47.

The Kings restarted their offense, but could not get a shot past Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig.

They began the overtime period down a man because Robitaille had taken an interference penalty with 15 seconds to play in regulation. The disadvantage thwarted their first attempt this season at extra minutes, in which the plan was to “go for it,” Murray said.

The Kings used three attackers and a defender as their four players once Robitaille’s sentence was served. The idea was to grab the extra point if they could against an Eastern Conference team, as opposed to playing to deny the extra point against a Western Conference rival.

Blake and Jozef Stumpel each had two shots in overtime, but with five seconds to play the Kings found themselves with the tie in jeopardy.

A puck bounced to mid-ice, where Adam Oates and Bondra found themselves two-on-one against Blake.

“Rob Blake played it great,” Fiset said. “He played the pass and let the guy with the puck [Oates] have the shot.”

Fiset stopped the first shot, and the rebound bounced high into the air. Robitaille kept the second shot out of the net, and the Kings headed home with a point.

“We’re getting there,” Blake insisted. “We shut them out for two periods unbelievably, and they get a quick power-play goal and one at even strength and they’re back in it. But all in all, it’s pretty satisfying.”

Robitaille broke a scoreless tie with a power-play goal--his fourth score with a man advantage and seventh overall--at 2:43 of the second period, lurking in his usual vulture role around the net to put back a missed shot by Stumpel, who was trying to put back a miss by Blake that was deflected by Fran Kaberle.

Tuomainen, a rookie, scored his first NHL goal 2:06 after Robitaille’s, taking a pass from Ian Laperriere that was deflected by Craig Johnson.

So the season-opening trip ended at 3-1-1. The Kings come home to practice, then play at Edmonton and Calgary next weekend, before opening at Staples Center against Boston on Oct. 20.

“To play five games in eight nights, traveling across the country, it’s not an easy road,” Murray said. “To lose one game . . . is encouraging.”

It’s a bit better than good. But it’s a fair distance from great.