STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Another Sudden Death Gives Canadiens New Life : Roy: Montreal goalie loves overtimes. He now has 9-1 record in them during the playoffs this year.

The Americans have a phrase for it, no?

Sudden death, no?

Pardon their French, but the Montreal Canadiens have a different translation for that bit of overtime they have been required to work on 10 occasions so far in their 35th Stanley Cup tournament.

According to the Patrick Roy’s playoff glossary, the correct usage is sudden life .

“We feel nothing can stop us in overtime,” Roy said Saturday night, moments after the Kings couldn’t, for the second time in as many Stanley Cup championship games.

“We are so positive.

“We are so confident.

“We feel things will always go our way.”

Nine times out of 10, they do. Where would the Canadiens be in these playoffs without sudden death? Dead. They are 9-1 in this postseason in games needing more than 60 minutes to decide. They are 9-0 since April 18, their first game of the first round, when Quebec’s Scott Young found the net before a Canadien could, manufacturing a 3-2 victory for the Nordiques.

Ever since, overtime has been Les Habitants’ natural habitat.

This one ended 4-3, Montreal.

And ice is cold, and a puck is hard, and putting one past Roy is even harder.

Montreal took three overtimes from Buffalo, 4-3. Three in a row. Then, one more in the semifinals against the New York Islanders. And, one more Saturday night against the Kings, after blowing a 3-0 second-period lead that had players popping loose panels of plexiglass and 16,005 Kings fans trying to break them with their vocal cords from that point forward.

Roy, the Canadiens’ ever-vigilant netminder, was working on a shutout when Luc Robitaille crushed a black blur by him from 15 feet out, at 7:52 of the second period.

Three minutes later, Tony Granato pounded another one into the net.

Six minutes after that, Wayne Gretzky tied it at 3-3, smashing a dart past Roy and raising the Forum roof in the process.

Roy simply shrugged.

Three-three in regulation?

That’s regulation for Montreal, isn’t it?

“If you had told me before this game that we would be tied, 3-3, in the third period,” Roy said, “I’d be happy. The Kings have good goal-scorers. Robitaille? A perfect shot. Gretzky? A perfect shot. I said to myself, ‘That’s all I can do.’ If can keep that up, we’ll be all right.”

Just get me to overtime, Roy told his mates. That they did, although in the final minute of the third period, it got dicey.

With 14 seconds left, the Kings’ Tomas Sandstrom drove the puck toward the left corner of the net, only to plunk a prone Guy Carbonneau, the Canadiens’ captain, under his arm. Carbonneau was stretched out in the crease, he noticed the puck as soon as it struck him and with his right hand he gathered it in and flipped it to Roy, who promptly covered up with 12.9 to play, quelling the Kings’ buzz.

The Kings argued for a penalty shot, saying that Carbonneau in the crease, deflecting a puck, was one too many Canadiens. But referee Terry Gregson disagreed, a decision Roy loudly applauded in the winning dressing room a half-hour later.

“Great call by the ref,” Roy said, matter-of-factly. “Carbonneau was cross-checked into the net. You only call a penalty shot when a player’s in the crease and reaches out and grabs the puck.

“Carbonneau didn’t even know where the puck was. He was lying there and Sandstrom shot the puck right into him. What can he do? I think the Kings were pretty lucky they weren’t called for cross-checking.”

Only 12.9 seconds remained. Roy and the Canadiens burned those off easily. They can play for the tie with the best of them.

Nothing much was said in the room between the third period and sudden death, according to Roy. Nothing much had to be said.

The Canadiens know their place and that place is overtime. Call it their comfort zone. Even for less than a minute, which is all they needed Saturday.

Practice, practice, practice. If it hasn’t made perfect for the Canadiens, it has made them 9-1 in April, May and June.

That’s a sudden death anybody can live with.