Kings Put a Bell on Maple Leafs’ Cat : Game 7: Toronto goalie Potvin proves less effective when L.A. creates a commotion in front of net.

Until Thursday, the Campbell Conference finals were a Cat and mouse game. Toronto goaltender Felix (the Cat) Potvin pounced on nearly everything thrown at him by the Kings in an acrobatic display that brought the Maple Leafs within one victory of their first berth in the Stanley Cup finals since 1967.

But in mustering their best offensive showing of the series for the 5-4 overtime victory that sent the teams back to Maple Leaf Gardens tonight for Game 7, the mice might have outsmarted the Cat.

Although respectful of Potvin and his quick glove, the Kings believe they have found a way to beat Toronto’s rookie goalie.

By attempting to break his concentration and obscure his sight of the puck whenever possible, they scored more goals against him Thursday than anyone since the Red Wings scored six during the second game of Toronto’s first-round series.

The Kings intend to intensify those tactics tonight in hopes of gaining their first trip to the Stanley Cup finals.

“He played very, very well, but we made some of our shots count,” said Marty McSorley, whose wrist shot eight minutes into the second period Thursday made the score 2-2.

“We were bearing down on him more. We’ve got to get in a little tighter and create more traffic so it’s tougher for him to pick up the puck.”

Said King Coach Barry Melrose: “With a great goalie like that, you’ve got to keep pounding, pounding, pounding. There’s no set way to beat him.”

But Melrose and his players agreed that creating a distraction and setting up the possibility of a deflection near the net was the way to get to the young goalie. Even Wayne Gretzky, who prefers to set up behind the net on power plays and pass the puck to teammates in front of the net, instead stood in front of the net to be sure Potvin saw him.

“You just have to work hard and drive to the net and try to get guys in front of him,” said Tomas Sandstrom, who had three assists Thursday. “We just have to rattle him. It was good to get five goals against him. But when you get to the seventh game, you’ve got to go in there and play hard.”

Rattling him won’t be easy.

“Win or lose, he’s very composed,” Toronto General Manager Cliff Fletcher said. “I’ve met his parents and watched him in junior hockey and on the farm (team), but it just seems to be in his own makeup, not what someone’s taught him.

“There was a little concern at the start of the playoffs, as with any young goaltender. But I didn’t think he’d be any different than the regular season.”

He hasn’t been any less remarkable in postseason play than he was during 48 regular season games, when he led the NHL with a 2.50 goals-against average and ranked second to the St. Louis Blues’ Curtis Joseph with a .910 save percentage.

Potvin, who started the season with the Maple Leafs but spent two weeks with their St. John’s farm team in January, was 25-15-7 this season and beat out veteran Daren Puppa to earn the starting role in the playoffs. He has started all 20 Toronto playoff games and played all but 20 minutes, compiling a 2.74 goals-against average. His save percentage is .907.

The 21-year-old native of Anjou, Quebec, has played 1,249 minutes, the fourth-highest total by a goaltender in one playoff year. Ron Hextall set the record in 1986-87 by playing 1,540 minutes for the Philadelphia Flyers, who lost a five-game final series to Edmonton. Hextall’s total is also the record for most minutes by a rookie goalie in a playoff year.

But while Potvin is still a first-year player, he has proved his maturity to his teammates. At this advanced stage, Mike Foligno said, “You’re not a rookie. We don’t even think about that any more. We’re all men, and men show up to play.”

In his previous seventh-game performances this spring, Potvin stopped 24 of 27 shots during a 4-3 first-round victory over the Red Wings and stopped all 25 shots taken by the Blues in a 6-0 victory in the Norris Division final.

“We know we can (win a seventh game), but we can’t just sit on it and say, ‘We did it twice,’ ” Potvin said. “We have to come out strong and play good.”