STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : King-Size Emotions a Factor? : Game 3: They play host to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time, and it shows against the Canadiens.

Feelings.

There were plenty at the Forum on Saturday night for the Kings--from nervousness to elation to helpless to depression to determination.

It began with nervousness.

After waiting through their entire existence, 26 years, the Kings finally got to host a Stanley Cup final.

All the pieces were in place--a former President of the United States in Ronald Reagan, enough movie stars to cast a three-hour blockbuster, a pregame light show fit for the Ice Capades and a game worthy of the occasion--Game 3 between the Kings and the Montreal Canadiens.

Everything was in place except the Kings.

They failed to show until the second period, skating through the first with as flat a performance as they have had in the postseason.

A bad case of nerves?

“We were tentative and uptight,” forward Tony Granato said. “This was the most uptight we’ve been in the playoffs.”

Then came the elation in the second period, sparked by the bone-rattling hit King defenseman Mark Hardy put on the Canadiens’ Mike Keane.

The Kings trailed, 3-0, at the time, but it didn’t seem to matter.

“That was awesome,” Granato said. “You could see on our bench, people were saying ‘Who cares what the score is? Let’s play and get after them.’ ”

That the Kings did, tying the score before losing 34 seconds into overtime.

That’s where the helplessness came in.

The Kings’ Kelly Hrudey suffered through the most helpless feeling a goalie must endure.

He was lying on his side, buried under a pile of bodies, some of them his own teammates.

He could hear the roar of the crowd, the shouts of the players and the smacking of stick against puck.

Through his mind raced the desperate situation he was in: It’s the Stanley Cup finals. It’s overtime. It’s going to be over if he doesn’t get up.

But he couldn’t.

Montreal Canadien center John LeClair had already taken two shots at Hrudey.

“I saw the first two,” Hrudey said. “I knew he was going try and walk out in front.”

But there was little Hrudey could do about it from the midst of a pileup.

“I sprawled out, tried to get a leg out,” he said, “tried to get a piece of it.”

The next thing Hrudey heard was the sound of celebrating Canadiens.

Some might call this defeat--the Kings’ second in a row to Montreal in overtime--crushing.

Not Hrudey.

“No defeat is crushing for us,” he said. “We have been so resilient this season.”

That was the general tone in the Kings’ locker room after Saturday’s game had ended.

There was the expected depression, but it was tempered with determination.

This team has been discounted so many times from midseason on, been considered the underdog in every playoff series, player after player said, that a 2-1 deficit in this best-of-seven series certainly doesn’t seem insurmountable.

“It’s not the end of the world,” Granato said.

Added Hrudey: “I’m not much of a believer in momentum. There has been no momentum in this wild, crazy playoff season. And home ice has meant nothing.”

Out in the hallway, King Coach Barry Melrose was marching back and forth. First he left his locker room to go to an interview room where reporters from two countries waited.

Never a pleasant task for a losing coach.

But when he got there, Melrose discovered that winning coach Jacques Demers wasn’t finished talking.

So back Melrose headed to his locker room to wait his turn.

Once again, he had been upstaged by Demers and the Canadiens.

That has been the worst feeling of all for Melrose and his Kings.