From: claudius@leland.Stanford.EDU (Nelson Lu)
Subject: Sharks lose to Kings 8-5
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Sun, 4 Oct 92 06:08:23 GMT

Saturday, October 3, 7:30 P. M., at the Great Western Forum:

The Kings displayed the firepower that they have lacked thus far in the pre-
season, as they out-shot the Sharks 51-27 and scored 4 power-play goals to
beat the Sharks 8-5.  There were bundles and bundles of power-plays, and both
the Sharks' Jeff Hackett (43 saves on 51 shots) and the Kings' Robb Stauber
(22-27) appeared to have played much better than those stats would indicate.
If the present pace of penalty-calling continues, a huge deflation of goalies'
stats will be one of the results.

The first period was fairly evenly played, as the Kings out-shot the Sharks
12-8 but the teams got 2 goals each.  Luc Robitaille opened the scoring at
4:22 on the power-play.  Jim Hiller started the play from the left point, as he
passed to the right to Paul Coffey, whose hard shot was stopped by Hackett, but
the puck came out on a long rebound, and Robitaille wristed a shot by Hackett.
Pat Falloon then tied the game at 8:13, as he, off a pass from Sandis Ozolinsh
in the neutral zone, started on a run himself and skated past Coffey all alone
on Stauber, beating Stauber down low.  Marty McSorley put the Kings on top
again at 13:32, as Pat Conacher skated in on a close shot on Hackett, which
Hackett stopped, but had to fall on the ice, and McSorley had no problem
lifting the puck over Hackett's glove.  Doug Wilson closed out the first period
scoring at 19:21 on the power-play, as he unleashed a rocket off a pass from
rookie defenseman Doug Zmolek, and eluded Stauber, with a 5-3 man advantage.

The Sharks took the lead early at 6:16 of second period.  Petri Skriko stole
the puck at center ice, and skated in on Stauber, faking a pass but instead
initiated a wrist shot that eluded Stauber to give the Sharks a 3-2 lead.
However, a few minutes later, a major penalty to Brian Lawton for butt-ending
gave the Kings a chance that they would not let go, as they scored 3 power-play
goals on that major power-play, 2 of them with the Sharks down 5-3 in man
power.  Robitaille scored first (no time) off the a face-off won by Robert
Lang.  Less than a minute later, Rob Blake blasted a hard shot off a Coffey
pass, and yet in a while Tony Granato jabbed the rebound off a Blake shot right
in front to give the Kings a 5-3 lead.  Robitaille completed the hat trick at
14:57, as he deflected a shot from the side by Granato.  The Sharks moved
within 6-4 at 17:06, on the power-play.  Zmolek again set up Wilson perfectly
for a hard point shot, and Dale Craigwell deflected Wilson's shot in front
past Stauber.

The Sharks appeared to have moved back into the game, as they scored on a 5-3
advantage at 9:29 of the third period.  Falloon was in the corner, passing the
puck back to the point to Ozolinsh, who then slid it to Zmolek, whose hard
shot get past Stauber.  However, the Sharks would not score again, and the
Kings got an insurance goal at 11:46, as Peter Ahola scored off an excellent
play by Blake, although Blake did not get an assist on this.  Bob Kudelski
just shot the puck into the Sharks zone, and Rob Zettler was getting it in back
of the net, when Blake checked Zettler hard into the boards, and the puck skid
free, and Ahola quickly shot it past Hackett.  Lang iced the game, as he scored
at 17:29 off a good pass from Robitaille.

Tonight's three stars:

1.	Luc Robitaille
2.	Rob Blake
3.	Robert Lang

(I would have given Zmolek the 3rd star, but I have no problem with Lang
getting it.)

Tonight's lines:

Johan Garpenlov		Dale Craigwell		Pat Falloon
Jean-Francois Quintin	Dave Snuggerud		Mikhail Kravets
Petri Skriko		Brian Lawton		Ed Courtenay
David Bruce		Larry DePalma		Don Barber

Tonight's defensive combinations:

		Doug Wilson		Doug Zmolek
		Jayson More		Sandis Ozolinsh
		Neil Wilkinson		Rob Zettler

The scratches include Kelly Kisio, Dean Evason, Mike Sullivan, Jeff Odgers,
Perry Berezan, John Carter, Ray Whitney, and David Williams.

Some thoughts:

1.	Zmolek played a great game, and if he plays this well consistently,
	he's ready to be a defensive leader.  Ozolinsh played almost as well,
	and is showing why he is viewed as a major defense prospect.

2.	The wing picture remains unclear.  Skriko appears to have iced a spot
	on the team with his solid play tonight.  Carter, a supposed
	contender, did not play tonight, and I assume he is out.  Kravets and
	Courtenay (and, on a lesser extent, DePalma) all seem to need some more
	experience, but they just might be better off getting it in San Jose
	rather than Kansas City.

3.	As a Kings fan, I am happy that the Robitaille-Lang-Hiller line is
	playing *very* well, and I hope that is indicative of the things to
	come.  Rookies Lang and Hiller seem to work well with Robitaille.

4.	Rob Blake is back from injuries that plagued him all season last year.

5.	Tonight's was the first game on radio thus far this season.  It seems
	like that Dan Rusanowski can use a couple extra games to warm up, but
	it's too late.  He's got a new color analyst partner, Chris Collins,
	whose background I am not clear on.  Collins was colorful, but at
	times he was so blunt as to be rude.  (Like calling Tony Granato a
	Tomas Sandstrom with brain.)  Nevertheless, Collins doesn't appear to
	be provincial, and appears to have good potential working with
	Rusanowski.

===============================================================================
GO LOS ANGELES KINGS!  Wayne Gretzky for Ross and Hart!
GO SAN JOSE SHARKS!  Ray Whitney for Calder!  Jeff Hackett for Vezina!
	Dean Evason for Selke!  Sandis Ozolinsh for Norris!
===============================================================================
Nelson Lu (claudius@leland.stanford.edu)
rec.sport.hockey contact for the San Jose Sharks
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey