King Offense Finds Itself in a 9-4 Rout of Flames : Hockey: L.A. takes a three games-to-two lead in series and will have its first May playoff game.

CALGARY, Canada — You had to search hard to find Wayne Gretzky, Luc Robitaille, Tomas Sandstrom and Tony Granato, picking through the crowd in the Kings’ scoring summaries the first four games of their Smythe Division semifinal series against the Calgary Flames.

It was almost like looking for Waldo.

The question wasn’t: Where’s Waldo? Instead, it was: Where are Gretzky, Robitaille, Sandstrom and Granato?

Once they emerged from relative playoff obscurity, the outcome of Game 5 was virtually a foregone conclusion, with the Kings defeating the Flames, 9-4, on Tuesday night before 19,304 at the Olympic Saddledome. The Kings took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven-series.

No matter what happens, the Kings actually will play a game in May, a franchise first. If necessary, Game 7 will be on Saturday in Calgary. The Kings could prevent a seventh game by clinching the Smythe Division semifinal with a victory in Game 6 on Thursday at the Forum. It is the first time the Kings have led in this series since the playoff opener.

Almost everyone knew it was a only a matter of time before Gretzky, Robitaille, Sandstrom and Granato scored. Gretzky led with one goal and three assists, Sandstrom scored once and added an assist and Robitaille scored twice and had one assist. Granato, not wanting to be left out, had a two-point night, scoring his first goal of the series with 3:06 remaining.

For Robitaille, a 63-goal scorer during the regular season, the series had been particularly frustrating. He entered Game 5 a minus-seven and had one assist and 12 penalty minutes.

“Well, there’s a lot more smiles now,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “A lot of these guys love to score. They kept getting chances, and you know they’re going to score.”

Gretzky needed a little help from Flame defenseman Kevin Dahl’s nose for his goal at 7:33 of the third period. He fired a shot at the net from above the right circle, near the boards, and it went off Dahl’s nose past goaltender Mike Vernon, who replaced starter Jeff Reese at the start of the third.

Said Gretzky, laughing: “Ten years from now it’ll be an end-to-ender. I just wanted to get it deep.”

His goal made the score 7-3, a little less than three minutes after he set Warren Rychel up from behind the net. It was Rychel’s third goal of the series, and he added two assists for a three-point performance.

Most important, Rychel’s goal gave the Kings a three-goal lead and halted the Flames’ momentum. Calgary’s only sustained offensive flurry came late in the second period and first minute of the third after the Kings had taken a 5-0 lead.

Center Joe Nieuwendyk broke through against King goaltender Robb Stauber with a power-play goal at 11:51 when he converted his own rebound at the right crease. Calgary pulled within three when defenseman Frank Musil, who is not exactly an offensive force, displayed some gritty play behind the net. Musil was being checked by King defenseman Marty McSorley and he tried to stuff the puck inside the right post. He failed to succeed and went around the other side, behind the net, and scored on a wraparound, cutting the Kings’ lead to 5-2.

Defenseman Chris Dahlquist pulled the Flames within two goals at 47 seconds into the third, beating Stauber on the stick side with a shot from the slot. Then, however, the Gretzky-Rychel combination went to work and the Flames fell too far behind to recover. Calgary was also hindered by the loss of left wing Gary Roberts, who missed the game with a bruised bone in his foot.

“It’s a matter of our guys being tight and not being relaxed,” Calgary Coach Dave King said. “We started off nervous and they got some momentum. If you look at the first 15 minutes, their chances were going in and ours weren’t.”

Stauber had something to do with that, obviously, shutting out the Flames until midway through the second period. The Kings scored at 2:52 of the first with Sandstrom finishing off a two-on-one and didn’t pick up another goal until Mike Donnelly scored at 14:30 to make it 2-0. In between, Stauber had to make several tough saves. In all, he faced 44 shots to win his second consecutive playoff start.

After the Kings’ tight 3-1 victory in Game 4, the series seemed due for another blowout. “Three of these games were really one-sided,” Granato said. “That’s pretty unusual. I thought it would be another tight game. Fortunately, we’re up 3-2. We all know the toughest victory is the next one.”

DROUGHT ENDS: Tomas Sandstrom, Luc Robitaille, Tony Granato and Wayne Gretzky finally score. C3