A FINISH TO FORGET KINGS END LONG TRIP WITH OT LOSS AGAINST BLUES ST. LOUIS 3, KINGS 2.

Byline: Matt McHale Staff Writer

ST. LOUIS - Four hours from home and 31 seconds from victory, the Kings got caught in a headwind that blew them away.

They had a chance to end their longest trip in 24 years with a big win over a conference rival and leave the toughest part of their schedule back with the room-service heartburn.

Instead, the Kings watched defenselessly as the St. Louis Blues fired away at the end of Thursday night's 3-2 overtime loss, until, as Mathieu Schneider put it, ``We just fell apart.''

The Kings had a chance to boast about their resolve under difficult circumstances. Their heavy hitters, Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh, were injured and no help. They hadn't changed their socks since San Jose two weeks ago. But all that mattered was the sight of goaltender Felix Potvin slipping quietly out of the dressing room for the bus ride to the airport.

``We totally let him down tonight,'' Ian Laperriere said. ``He gave his heart and soul for us tonight and every night. He played great in every game on this trip, and this is how we paid him back.''

The Kings had 12 shots against Blues goaltender Freddy Brathwaite and three in the final 25 minutes. St. Lous had 23 in the third period alone and one in overtime - Alexander Khavanov's game-winner.

Doug Weight tied the game at the 19:29 mark of regulation after a blown defensive assignment by Ziggy Palffy. That left rookie Alexander Frolov to handle Weight in front of Potvin, and the resulting goal hardly seemed fair.

``I made a bad line change,'' said Palffy, who skated off as Weight blew past Frolov. ``You can't do that in a big situation like that. You can't do that ever.''

Schneider wasn't singling out teammates for the collapse. He said the Kings just had nothing left at the end.

``It just all caught up to us,'' he said. ``Even before they scored, things were starting to slip away. We were so close to winning, but we also were falling apart. They could have scored two or three goals on us.''

As a result, the Kings finished the trip 2-3-1-2 and return to Los Angeles 8-6-3-3 overall.

Despite all the traveling, the Kings recorded a point in every game where they had more rest than their opponent. Their tie Tuesday night in Minnesota was viewed as a victory by the players because, coming off a win in Edmonton, they were starting to build momentum.

But the Blues are playing without top stars Chris Pronger, Keith Tkachuk, Brent Johnson and Jamal Mayers due to injuries.

St. Louis also was in the second night of back-to-back games and coming off a 3-2 overtime loss on the road to improving Columbus. The Blues are in a stretch of seven games in 11 days.

The Kings, though, were the ones misfiring. They wanted to pound home the Blues' fatigue and took the lead midway through the first period on Brad Norton's first NHL goal.

Norton, who opened the season as Schneider's partner on defense, was playing his third game as a forward. On the same line with Derek Armstrong and Mike Cammalleri, Norton took a pass inside the St. Louis blue line and beat Brathwaite.

The second period was scoreless, but the Kings' exhaustion began to show. They had just four shots on goal against Brathwaite. Palffy, who had goals in his past two games after going six weeks without scoring, had just one shot in the game and none in the final 45 minutes.

The only Kings to show an offensive pulse were top-line center Bryan Smolinski and defenseman Jaroslav Modry.

St. Louis tied the game at the 4:13 mark of the third period on a goal by virtual unknown Eric Boguniecki. In three previous seasons, Boguniecki did not score in 13 games. This season, he has 10 goals playing on a reconfigured line with Scott Melanby and Tyson Nash.

It looked, however, as though the Kings would endure when Modry scored his eighth goal of the season with less than five minutes left in regulation. Modry, who has been most successful on the Kings' power play, bulled his way to the front of the Blues' net and beat Brathwaite for a 2-1 lead.

``If we could have just held on right there it would have been great,'' Modry said. ``We would have been going home with a win and things would have been great. Now nobody feels very good.''

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Photo:

The Kings' Jaroslav Modry (44) scores against St. Louis goalie Fred Brathwaite during Thursday's loss.

James A. Finley/Associated Press