Top Four Go From Famine to Feast : Kings: Sandstrom, Robitaille, Granato and Gretzky score their first goals of the playoffs.

CALGARY, Canada — After he had scored the first goal of Tuesday night’s game, Tomas Sandstrom skated over to the Kings’ bench with a big smile on his face.

“Look at that monkey up there,” he told teammate Luc Robitaille. “It’s off my back.”

Soon, it would be off four backs.

The Kings’ 9-4 victory over the Calgary Flames in Game 5 of this best-of-seven Smythe Division semifinal series was unique in that Sandstrom, Robitaille, Tony Granato and Wayne Gretzky all scored goals, Robitaille getting two. They were the first of the series for each, although the four had combined for 141 goals during the regular season.

Perhaps the most frustrated of the group had been Robitaille. He had set NHL records during the regular season for a left wing with 63 goals and a total of 125 points.

But once the postseason began, Robitaille disappeared on the ice, reappearing in the penalty box.

Through the first four games of the series, he had a grand total of one point on an assist, but was guilty of six penalties.

Robitaille acknowledged being down over the drastic change in his fortunes, but he tempered his anguish by reminding himself again and again that the important number was in the victory column.

And in that department, the Kings are ahead of Calgary, 3-2.

“It feels just as good tonight,” he said after getting three points, “as it did in the last game (which the Kings also won).

“When you lose, you feel it was your job to score. But it doesn’t really matter who scores. It matters who wins. When you get to the end, they only write the names of who won the Stanley Cup, not who scored the points.”

Still, Robitaille says, he was pressing.

“The one thing I wanted to make sure,” he said, “was that I wasn’t doing too much thinking out there.”

Trying to reason your way out of a slump can result in hesitation on the ice. And hesitation results in lost opportunities.

“Luc has to shoot and he has to go to the net,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “I’d bet that 40 of his goals this season came from the crease in. He does that better than anyone in the NHL.”

Melrose smiled at the offensive explosion by his four slumping stars.

“They’ve been taking a lot of heat,” Melrose said. “Because they are high-profile guys, people expect them to score six goals a game.

“But they have been doing a lot of the dirty work that is very important to this team. Tonight, they were rewarded for their efforts.”

Robitaille’s reward came in the second period with his team already up, 3-0.

Gretzky banged the puck off the end boards with the ricochet going to Robitaille on the left side. He put the puck between the pads of Calgary goalie Jeff Reese.

But Robitaille’s long-awaited goal wasn’t a solid smash.

Just the opposite.

“I almost missed it,” Robitaille said. “I didn’t hit it good at all. But I’ve had a lot of solid shots that didn’t go in. So I’d rather hit it this way and get the goal.”

At the other end of the locker room, Granato was expressing similar sentiments.

“Sometimes you get in a groove,” he said, “and other times, nothing goes in. That’s why there’s 20 guys on a hockey team.”

Before the game, Sandstrom predicted to Robitaille that he was going to break out of his personal drought and turn the red light on.

Did Robitaille respond with a similar prediction?

“I didn’t say anything,” Robitaille said.

But after doing his talking on the ice, Robitaille could only shake his head at the ups and downs that all offensive players eventually go through.

Asked if he could explain it, Robitaille replied, “I wish I knew. I’d never miss.”