STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : In an Instant, Hardy Becomes Big Hit : Game 3: Defenseman’s bone-jarring check on Keane sparks Kings to life in second period.

The Kings checked the scoreboard, and saw a game that was getting away. Montreal was ahead, 3-0, and it was only the second period.

Then King defenseman Mark Hardy checked Mike Keane against the boards, and the Kings saw daylight.

No report on whether Keane did.

It was a bone-jarring, glass-jarring hit and it sent the Forum crowd into paroxysms of delight. The Kings had some fight in them after all.

The crowd roared at the slow-motion replay as it showed Keane slam into the glass, his upper-body recoiling sharply against it, knocking two panes of glass from their framework.

“The puck was just coming around the boards, he was looking for it and we both went for each other,” Hardy said. “We both felt the collision.”

To say the least.

“That was as good a hit as you’ll ever see in the NHL,” the Kings’ Tony Granato said.

It was a hit that knocked some sense into the Kings, who came back with three second-period goals Saturday to tie the score before eventually losing Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals in overtime, 4-3.

“It was the turning point for our club,” said Wayne Gretzky, who eventually scored the tying goal before the period was over, with Hardy credited with the second assist on the goal. “I thought he turned things around for us. They were dominating and they were hitting us.”

“It was a great play,” King goalie Kelly Hrudey said. “When you’re down, 3-0, you go back to basics, and plays like that can turn things around. Mark knows his job and he went out and did it.”

It was a hit that no one in the arena could fail to appreciate, least of all Montreal Coach Jacques Demers, notorious for his keen observations.

“A check like that gets everybody involved,” Demers said. “It was after that that they started coming after us.”

Hardy allowed himself a moment to relish it after the game, even after the wrenching overtime defeat.

“Hits like that only come along once a season sometimes,” he said. “For me especially. When you don’t get out there too often, they’re even more rare.”

It was only because of the knee injury to defenseman Charlie Huddy that Hardy was on the ice so much Saturday. An aging veteran now at 34, he lives on the fringes, and he might not have even dressed for the game if King Coach Barry Melrose hadn’t played a hunch and kept center Jimmy Carson out another game.

Hardy had already made himself valuable earlier in the playoffs when the Kings suffered other injuries to their defensemen. Called on again Saturday, he came up big.

“Mark’s been great,” Melrose said. “We were very fortunate we had him.”

Hardy began his career with Montreal, but he was a King way back when, from 1979-80 until 87-88. He came back to the Kings this season in a trade with the New York Rangers.

It’s a dream for Hardy, as it is for the others. However, it’s more unlikely for him.

“Ever since I was a kid I’ve been dreaming of this,” he said. “Since I got traded back to the Kings, it’s just been fantastic.”

That’s probably not the word Keane would use. And he declined to credit Hardy with a change of anyone’s momentum but his own.

“I don’t think that check changed the momentum,” Keane said. “I think we got cocky. We were losing pucks at the blue line, and you can’t do that when Wayne Gretzky’s on the ice. He made us pay, and Luc Robitaille made us pay.”

Hardy laughed. Hey, he paid for the hit a little too.

“We both felt it,” he said.

And Keane?

“He’s a tough little guy,” Hardy said. “He bounced right back.”