Seven for Kings, Six for Hrudey : Hockey: Goalie is hot. L.A. scores three goals in the first five minutes of the third period for 5-3 victory over Penguins.

It’s pretty hard to put anything past Kelly Hrudey these days.

Ask any of the defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

Ask the Pittsburgh power-play unit.

All could attest to the stonewall stance the Kings’ goalie has taken of late.

The Kings beat the Penguins, 5-3, Saturday night for their seventh consecutive win. And Hrudey has won the last six of those.

The quality of the opponent doesn’t seem to matter. Neither does the situation.

Hrudey (22-12-12) merely hunches over his crease and shuts the door.

Take Saturday night, for example.

The Kings, led by Tony Granato’s two goals and Wayne Gretzky’s three points, had a 5-2 lead with barely under four minutes to play.

Then Tim Watters drew a five-minute major penalty for cutting Ron Francis under the lip.

Still 3:46 to play.

“With a team as potent as they are,” Hrudey said, “and four minutes left, it can be tough.”

But it was Hrudey who hung tough, giving up Rick Tocchet’s 17th goal, but denying the Penguins on seven other shots to boost the Kings to 31-24-13.

Pittsburgh, losing all three against the Kings this year and their 12th in their last 13 at the Forum, dropped to 30-28-8.

Luc Robitaille opened the scoring in the first period with his 40th goal of the season, bouncing the puck in off goalie Tom Barrasso’s left skate.

Robitaille has not scored fewer than 45 goals in any of his previous five seasons with the Kings.

Goals by Larry Murphy (18th) and Bryan Trottier (10th) put the Penguins ahead, 2-1.

But Pittsburgh was not heard from again until the end.

Over the next period and a half, the Kings reeled off four unanswered goals to put the game away, including three scores in the first five minutes of the third period.

Granato scored a pair, his 36th and career-high 37th, Dave Taylor got his 10th and Gretzky capped the Kings’ scoring with his 28th. It came short-handed on a spectacular play worthy of his already marathon career highlight film.

Gretzky, skating down the right side, took a shot that was blocked by Murphy. But without breaking stride, Gretzky regained control of the puck, whizzed past the Pittsburgh defenseman and fired the puck past a helpless Barrasso.

With three points, Gretzky has 27 in his last 10 games and a league-leading 106 overall.

But in the end, it came down to Hrudey.

He even stopped one shot while on his back by slamming his leg to the ice to smother the puck as it rolled close to the goal line.

“You know me,” Hrudey said with a smile. “Sometimes I just flop around and hope I land on it.”

Still, he cautioned reporters, despite all his recent success, this is no time to celebrate.

“There are 12 games to go,” he said. “Let’s wait and see before you write a real beautiful story. These things have a way of stopping real fast.”

King Notes

Jari Kurri got one assist Saturday, the 600th of his career. . . . The Tuesday trading deadline is expected to come and go without the Kings making a major move. And very likely none at all. “We’re pretty satisfied,” King General Manager Rogie Vachon said. “We will see. We might try to add somebody up front, but we won’t do anything big” That’s a statement Vachon wasn’t willing to make a few weeks ago. But the trade for defenseman Paul Coffey has given the Kings confidence they have the necessary ingredients heading into the playoffs. . . . Vachon says the Kings got a solid if not spectacular defenseman when they signed 22-year-old Dave Tretowicz off the U.S. Olympic team to play for their Phoenix Roadrunner farm club. “If you want to describe him, he’s a bigger Tim Watters,” Vachon said of the 5-foot-11, 190-pound Tretowicz. “He’s a good defenseman, a stay-at-home guy, someone you can rely on. You need that kind of guy.” There are no immediate plans to call up Tretowicz. “We’ll wait and see if we need him,” Vachon said. “Right now we have a lot of healthy bodies, but they can go down fast.” . . . Defensemen Coffey (back spasms) and Charlie Huddy (strained shoulder) and goalie Steve Weeks (sore back) all sat out.