Kings Pull Triple-Triple, 12-4 : L.A.’s Three Hat Tricks Break Playoff Record : Hockey: Gretzky gets a goal and four assists. Club leads series against Flames, three games to one.

On April 10, 1982, the Kings won the Miracle on Manchester game.

Tuesday, on the eighth anniversary of that event, came the Massacre on Manchester.

The Kings, scoring early, often and with record efficiency, routed the Calgary Flames, 12-4, before a sellout Forum crowd of 16,005, giving the Kings a three-games-to-one lead in their best-of-seven opening-round playoff series.

There were three King hat tricks, an NHL playoff record. Between them, Dave Taylor, Tony Granato and Tomas Sandstrom scored on nine of 10 shots.

The Kings had only four previous playoff hat tricks in their entire history.

The former King playoff record for points in a game was four. Three Kings--Granato, Sandstrom and Wayne Gretzky--had five apiece.

Gretzky tied another Kings playoff record with four assists.

The 12 goals are the most the Kings have ever scored and the Flames have given up in a playoff game.

It also ties the Kings’ all-time record for goals in any game.

Up in the owners’ box, Bruce McNall, the Kings’ current owner, and Jerry Buss, the previous owner, were almost too shocked to celebrate.

“We were stunned,” McNall said. “It was crazy up there. Pandemonium.”

Magic Johnson came by to offer congratulations. He had just seen Showtime on ice.

“It is mind-boggling,” Taylor said, “when you look at the stats. You are going to have a game like that where the puck has eyes and they find the corners and they go in the net. We can’t get too fat because we scored a dozen goals. We just have to go to Calgary and get the fourth win.”

Said Calgary Coach Terry Crisp: “We’re totally humiliated and totally embarrassed.”

The Kings’ attack was ignited by two Flame penalties.

First, Al MacInnis was called for holding Jay Miller. Then, Ric Nattress received a double-minor, for cross-checking and unsportsmanlike conduct when he smacked John Tonelli after the King wing had already gone down.

Given a five-on-three advantage for 1:34, the Kings got off only two shots and both missed the mark.

But the Kings didn’t let the opportunity totally slip away, finally scoring with a man advantage at the 6:38 mark. Todd Elik, controlling the puck behind the net, flipped it out on the left side to Taylor, who shoved it past goalie Mike Vernon’s glove side barely inside the right post.

That goal started a 5:17 span during which the Kings scored four goals on five shots.

After Elik’s goal, the onslaught continued:

8:25--Granato scores his first goal of the night after Rob Blake, skating down the left side, appears to get knocked off the puck by Doug Gilmour. Granato gains control and fired from the left circle. Vernon, screened by both a Flame and a King, never saw the puck until it went past his glove.

11:06--Wayne Gretzky, coming in from the right side, passed the puck across the middle under the glove of a diving Nattress to Sandstrom rushing the net from the left. Vernon had already come out on the right, leaving an open side for Sandstrom to smash the puck in.

11:55--With Rick Wamsley replacing Vernon, Luc Robitaille left a drop pass for Elik in the slot. His shot was wide to the right, but Wamsley got a glove on it, knocking it down. That left it sitting on the ice on the right side, and Dave Taylor scored his second goal of the evening.

While the Kings were busy filling the net with pucks, the Flames were struggling to get a shot on goal.

They didn’t get their first until after 16:04.

The Kings added three goals--Jay Miller’s first and the second of the night for both Granato and Sandstrom--to take a 7-0 lead.

Miller’s goal proved that the puck was bouncing the Kings’ way.

From behind the Calgary goal, he took a shot that bounced off the net. Undaunted, he shoved the puck in front. It bounced off MacInnis’ skate and rolled past Wamsley.

Joel Otto and Paul Ranheim scored for Calgary in a span of 22 seconds, but the Kings came right back with a goal, Wayne Gretzky’s first since his back injury.

Attempting to score from the right side, Gretzky was blocked by both Nattress and Wamsley, both of whom tried to push him out of position.

But Gretzky held his ice, arched his back and, without looking, shoved the puck behind him, by both Nattress and Wamsley into the goal.

Elik also scored for the Kings, and Theoren Fleury and Joe Nieuwendyk closed out Calgary’s scoring.

The Flames can take solace from the fact that the series is not over. And from the fact that Game 4 is.

King Notes

The Miracle on Manchester occurred when the Kings came back from a 5-0 deficit to beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-5, in overtime during a 1982 best-of-five playoff series the Kings won, three games to two.

* STANLEY CUP ROUNDUP: C5