Kings Win at Follow-the-Leader : Game 1: Montreal’s Demers says Gretzky toys with Canadiens and brings teammates along in 4-1 victory.

Maybe now the Canadiens know why the Kings were laughing their way through their introductory news conference at the Stanley Cup finals.

The explanation came Tuesday night when Kings so thoroughly dominated Montreal in Game 1 that the Canadiens needed a goal by Wayne Gretzky--into his own net--to avoid a shutout. Montreal’s native son and left wing Luc Robitaille put two goals past goaltender Patrick Roy, and Gretzky added another improbable goal from a sharp angle into an empty net and three assists in the Kings’ 4-1 victory before a sellout crowd of 17,959 at the Montreal Forum.

It gave the Kings a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and ended the Canadiens’ eight-game winning streak at home. It was only their fourth loss in 16 playoff games. Montreal Coach Jacques Demers gave almost all the credit to Gretzky.

“Gretzky toyed with us tonight,” he said. “He did what he wanted. . . . I cannot take anything away from Wayne and his boys. This was the Great One we saw tonight. Everybody just followed the pattern of Gretzky.”

In one sense, Gretzky scoring on his own goaltender, Kelly Hrudey, eventually came back to haunt the Canadiens. It was late in the first period and Gretzky was working hard on defense, backchecking when Ed Ronan threw the puck out front from the left corner. Gretzky, stretching with his stick, put it past a stunned Hrudey at 18:09.

All Gretzky could do was skate away, looking down and shaking his head ever so slightly. After one period the scoreboard showed: Kings 1, Canadiens 1.

“It happens to everybody,” King defenseman Charlie Huddy said. “He felt bad. After that, he kind of picked it up and turned it on. He went out and played his hockey game.

Said Gretzky: “I’ve done it at least three or four times in my career. I don’t think I’ve ever shot it that hard.”

Well, it probably was another first for Gretzky: He figured in all five goals scored by both teams.

The Canadiens realize they have to pick their game up several notches, and the Kings expect them to do so in Thursday’s Game 2. But they were saying they did virtually nothing to shut Gretzky down. Demers had planned on using a line of John LeClair-Kirk Muller-Mike Keane to key on Gretzky, but Keane, one of the Canadiens’ best penalty killers, was scratched because of a recurrence of back spasms.

And Muller’s effectiveness was limited when King Coach Barry Melrose put the defensive pairing of Alexei Zhitnik and Rob Blake on the ice against Muller.

“We can’t let Wayne play like that,” Montreal defenseman Sean Hill said. “He’s the best in the world. It doesn’t mean we have to ram him through the glass.

Said Roy: “We let him do what he wanted to tonight, and we did not stop him at all. I was disappointed in our performance. I thought we would come out strong, and I wasn’t very lucky tonight.”

Naturally Gretzky, playing in his first Stanley Cup finals since 1988, was the focal point during the game and afterward. But he and Robitaille weren’t the sole reasons for the Kings’ success. It was also players such as Tony Granato, Darryl Sydor and Marty McSorley, whose faces seem to be looking more like road maps.

“You mean the all-ugly team?” Granato said.

Sydor joined the threesome within the first eight seconds of his Stanley Cup finals debut. A shot from Canadien defenseman Lyle Odelein hit Sydor in front of Montreal’s bench. A fair amount of blood spilled onto the ice, and Sydor needed more than 30 stitches. But he returned for the second period.

“It was like someone took a pair of scissors and snipped his upper and lower lips and he chipped two teeth,” King team physician Ron Kvtine said. “I would have been in the hospital.”

Said Alexi Zhitnik: “Big lips now.”

The Kings can win with skill, speed and finesse as well as playing an ugly, get-it-done defense. Granato, who had one assist, had more to do with the victory than what showed on the score sheet.

On the Kings’ two power-play goals, he drew the penalty that led to the first one. Odelein went to the penalty box for holding Granato, and the Kings needed only 21 seconds into the power play to take a 1-0 lead with Robitaille’s goal at 3:03. Robitaille put his own rebound off Roy’s skate from the right crease.

Granato constantly kept the Canadiens on edge with his feisty, annoying brand of play. With the Kings holding a 2-1 lead, he helped break the game open at 1:51 of the third period. Roy went behind the net, but also dropped off the puck for defenseman Patrice Brisebois. Granato muscled Brisebois off the puck and fed it to Gretzky, who hit Jari Kurri in the slot.

“It took a funny bounce,” Granato said. “I just got it to Gretz, and he’s the guy who gets it done.”

Said Melrose: “He (Granato) is such a competitor. Tony exemplifies our team. That’s us. He’s not big in stature--(he’s) big in heart. We go nose-to-nose with teams. Tony is the guy that leads us. He gets in everybody’s face. (Gary) Shuchuk does the same thing.

“Then we have the young kids on defense. Old man (Dave) Taylor, old man (Pat) Conacher and old man (Charlie) Huddy.”

The old men haven’t done such a bad job. The kids, too, haven’t succumbed to the awe-inspiring surroundings of the two most famous arenas in hockey, Maple Leaf Gardens and the Forum.

“The players are starting to smell this taste of success, and they can smell how close we are and they can feel it,” Gretzky said.

Somehow, the metaphoric mix makes sense.