Vancouver Gets Fast Start With an Offensive Defense : NHL playoffs: The Canucks beat Kings, 5-2, in Game 1 of Smythe finals with scoring from some unlikely players.

It is one thing to lose at the hands of pure scorers, such as Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, Petr Nedved and Cliff Ronning. The four Vancouver Canuck forwards combined for 160 goals this season.

But how about Dana Murzyn, Gerald Diduck and Dave Babych?

The unlikely trio of Vancouver defensemen scored goals in the Canucks’ 5-2 victory over the Kings in Game 1 of the Smythe Division final on Sunday before 15,016 at the Pacific Coliseum.

The slow-skating threesome isn’t exactly known as an offensive force, combining for 14 goals in the regular season. Steady play is their forte. Usually, if they don’t get noticed, it’s good.

But Sunday, they took the spotlight from their vaunted, higher-paid, goal-scoring teammates. Ronning had two assists, and Bure and Linden one each. Nedved went pointless.

“We’re not concerned about what anyone says about us,” Murzyn said. “Maybe this will make up for us being slower than the rest.”

The Kings lost for the fifth consecutive time at Pacific Coliseum. As usual, they fell behind early, giving up the game’s first goal and trailing, 3-1, after one period.

“We have to come out and get the first goal next time,” said King left wing Mike Donnelly, whose goal tied the game, 1-1, at 7:02 of the first period.

They insisted that the regular-season series against Vancouver--in which the Kings won only two of nine games--didn’t mean a thing in the playoffs. Yet, familiarity with the Canucks seemed to draw almost all the playoff intensity out of the Kings.

“No, it wasn’t like a game in November,” King left wing Warren Rychel said. “It was a fast game, but it didn’t have the extra intensity of the previous playoff series. They didn’t see the real L.A. Kings. We just didn’t play nose-to-nose like we did against Calgary.”

The play of the King forwards was spotty. Wayne Gretzky, who was double-shifted from the start, had three shots in the second period and scored at 3:10, cutting the Canuck lead to 3-2. But Luc Robitaille, Tomas Sandstrom and Jari Kurri didn’t have a shot all day.

Actually, all the Kings had problems getting shots. They had only five in the first period--27 for the game--and went into an offensive slumber after Diduck gave the Canucks a 4-2 lead at 12:50 of the second period. Vancouver had 42 shots, and King goaltender Robb Stauber made 37 saves. He has faced 40 or more shots in each of his last three playoff starts.

A costly non-call hurt the Kings and Stauber late in the first period when Geoff Courtnall scored with 15.6 seconds to play to put Vancouver ahead, 3-1. Courtnall beat Stauber from his left side by deflecting Jyrki Lumme’s slap shot from the top of the right circle, but several seconds earlier the Canucks had been offside, which was clearly evident in the video replay.

“I could tell it was (offside) from the crease,” Stauber said. “I let up on it after the guy (Lumme) was at the point. That kind of hurt us. It could have been a 2-2 game going into the second period.”

On the Canucks’ fourth goal, by Diduck at 12:50 of the second, Stauber didn’t help himself. Neither did his teammates, who had a defensive breakdown.

Bure carried the puck from the left-wing side and kept it along the blue line before pushing it ahead to Anatoli Semenov in the slot. Semenov chipped it to Diduck, who beat Stauber with a shot from the middle of the right circle. Stauber said the shot hit him in the pants and deflected off his glove.

In the third period, any chance for the Kings to rally ended when Babych scored on his own rebound at 9:48. Stauber, staying in character, came out of the crease to challenge Babych and couldn’t get back fast enough to stop him from scoring.

Even though the Kings were outshot and outplayed at even strength and on special teams--the Canucks were two for five on the power play, the Kings were one for six--Coach Barry Melrose grew testy at the tone of questions in his post-game news conference.

“Hey, we had five breakaways tonight,” he said. “If we had scored on three of those it would have been different. I don’t think we have to make any changes. If I was (Canuck Coach) Pat Quinn, I’d be worried about giving up five breakaways.”

It is a good guess that Quinn won’t lose any sleep over the missed five breakaways. He can relax when people such as Diduck, Murzyn and Babych win games.

* PENGUINS: Mario Lemieux’s status is uncertain after back spasms sideline him during Pittsburgh’s loss. C12