A Trip Back in Time

SAN JOSE —  It was midway into the third period and the Kings trailed San Jose by a goal, but they had the Sharks scrambling on defense, thanks to a rush led by winger Mikko Eloranta.

Then just when it looked as if the Kings were about to tie the score, they failed to get off a solid shot and in the process, San Jose’s net was knocked nearly a foot away from the end line. But the officials never stopped play and neither did the Sharks, who came down the ice and scored again.

It was that type of night for the Kings, who opened their longest trip of the season with a 5-2 loss Tuesday night in front of 17,496 at HP Pavilion.

“We’re not playing as a team right now,” defenseman Mathieu Schneider said about the Kings, who held a team meeting after the game. “Things that we were doing over the first six or seven games and even in training camp, supporting each other and making the simple plays, we’re not doing right now.

“That was an easy game for [the Sharks]. They were able to come out of our end easily and cycled without any trouble, get traffic to the net.... All the things that we want to be doing, they took us to school with tonight.”

Rookie Lynn Loyns scored the first two goals of his NHL career and goaltender Evgeni Nabokov stopped 27 shots for the Sharks as they handed the Kings their second defeat in two days.

It was a rough night all around for the Kings, who finished the game two players short because of injuries. Enforcer Ken Belanger suffered a mild concussion in the first period and Eloranta left the game in the third with a leg injury.

“We came in here to play the second of back-to-back games ... and our goalie [Felix Potvin] gave us a chance for the first 40 minutes,” said King Coach Andy Murray, whose team lost, 5-2, to Minnesota on Monday. “Even though they got goals in the last 20, I thought the ice was tilted there [in the Kings’ favor] for a while.... They’re a good team but we have to be better than we were tonight.”

Unlike the previous two games, the Kings jumped out to an early lead against the Sharks.

Bryan Smolinski, who’s being counted on to step up at center for the injured Jason Allison, completed a nifty play down the center of the ice to set up the score. With two defenders on him, Smolinski made a touch pass to defenseman Jaroslav Modry, who jumped into the play and scored from near the right circle, giving the Kings a 1-0 lead at 3:29 of the first period.

But the Kings could not hold the momentum from Modry’s fifth goal in his last four games and the Sharks turned to Loyns to get back into the game. Thanks to some sloppy play by the Kings in their own zone, Loyns crashed the net and knocked the puck past Potvin to even the score at 1-1 midway into the period.

Loyns’ goal gave the Sharks some added spark and they continued to apply pressure on the King defense until they added another goal before the first intermission.

Loyns was again the man in the right place at the right time. After Potvin had trouble controlling the puck following a glove save on San Jose’s Matt Bradley, Loyns was able to backhand a shot into the net while laying face down on the ice at 14:27.

Things began to fall apart for the Kings in the third period. Mike Rathje scored twice sandwiched around a goal by Todd Harvey as the Sharks scored three times in the final five minutes.

“We have to find a way to elevate our game,” Schneider said. “We can’t use the schedule as an excuse.... We have to regroup.”