Kings Win, 6-4, as Ftorek Just Watches

For the second straight game, Coach Robbie Ftorek was not behind the Kings’ bench.

He left the direction of the Kings’ 6-4 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Saturday night to Bryan Maxwell and Cap Raeder, the other coaches on the staff.

Which is not to say the “assistant” coaches. In Ftorek’s system, they’re all coaches.

Ftorek said he wanted to give Maxwell and Raeder a chance to do some coaching behind the bench while he moved up into the press area to get a better vantage point.

It’s usually Raeder, the goalie coach, who takes the higher seat.

Ftorek said his decision to take a brief leave of absence from the bench had nothing to do with rumors that there is a rift between him and some of the players, notably Wayne Gretzky.

Grimacing, Ftorek said: “I wouldn’t even think of that.”

Ftorek said he planned to be back behind the bench for the Kings’ game against the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night at the Forum.

As the Kings (18-9) won their third straight game before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005, Bernie Nicholls was again the man of the hour.

Nicholls had 2 goals, including the game-winner, and 2 assists to add to his lead in the National Hockey League scoring race. He has 32 goals and 35 assists for 67 points.

Gretzky had 3 assists and an empty-net goal. He has 21 goals and 43 assists for 64 points, 2 more than third-place Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins, the defending NHL scoring champion.

Nicholls’ power-play goal at 3:14 of the third period put the Kings ahead to stay on a night when Blackhawk goalie Darren Pang was stopping plenty of the kind of shots that have the Kings leading the league in scoring.

Pang, who faced 47 shots, had made 2 tough saves and was flat on his back when Nicholls fired the winning goal over him.

At least in this game, Pang wasn’t pulled until the final 56 seconds. The last time he faced the Kings, in Chicago, he was pulled for another goalie with 11:51 to play in the second period. And the Kings won, anyway.

That game marked the NHL debut for Mark Fitzpatrick, who was in goal for the Kings again Saturday and raised his record to 3-1.

Fitzpatrick said he wasn’t nervous about his first start at the Forum.

“I know now what it’s like in the NHL, so I didn’t have anything to be nervous about,” he said.

But during the last 48 seconds, after the Blackhawks had taken a timeout and after they lined up with 6 players in his end of the ice, he had reason to be nervous.

“Oh, yeah, at that point,” Fitzpatrick said. “It could have gone either way.”

Chicago scored the game’s first goal, by Everett Sanipass off a pass from Denis Savard at 9:38 of the first period. But the Kings got a power-play goal from Nicholls and a short-handed goal from Steve Duchesne to take the lead before the period was over.

In the second period, Dirk Graham tied it for the Blackhawks at 5:58, but just 20 seconds later, the Kings went ahead, 3-2, on a long slapshot by Tom Laidlaw.

But again Chicago got even on a power-play goal by Trent Yawney off a slapshot from the right circle.

Duchesne scored his second goal of the night at 12:20, so the Kings went into the final period up by 1 goal.

Sure enough, just 12 seconds into the third period, the Blackhawks tied it, 4-4, on Graham’s second goal of the night, before Nicholls’ and Gretzky’s goals secured the victory for the Kings.

As for Ftorek’s status, General Manager Rogie Vachon said it was Ftorek’s decision to let his fellow coaches handle the bench duties again.

Maxwell, meanwhile, said Ftorek had a sore throat and needed something of a rest.

Duchesne was of the opinion that letting the other coaches handle a couple of games “has taken a lot of pressure off his shoulders.”

And owner Bruce McNall said that nothing should be read into the absence of Ftorek behind the bench. He said that whatever had happened between Ftorek and the players was over.

As for whether there is still an underlying negative feeling--as there certainly seems to be--McNall laughed.

“If they’re playing like this mad, maybe we should let them play mad,” he said.

King Notes

The sellout at the Forum was the Kings’ sixth of the season in their 15th home game. They had only 5 sellouts all last season. Attendance is up an average of more than 3,000 a game. . . . The Kings are 12-3 at home this season with 2 more games remaining on this home stand. They will play Winnipeg Tuesday night and again Thursday night. . . . Rookie goalie Mark Fitzpatrick’s record of 3-1 includes 2 wins over Chicago, another over Detroit and a loss at Vancouver. . . . Mario Lemieux, the defending NHL scoring champion, who now trails Bernie Nicholls and Wayne Gretzky in the scoring race, got only an assist in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 4-2 victory over the New York Islanders Saturday night.