Kings’ Legace Goes From Minors to Fantasyland

Florida Panther goaltender Sean Burke was Manny Legace’s hero when both skated for the Hartford Whalers four years ago. Legace, then a callow youth just getting started in professional hockey, carried Burke’s trading card in his wallet.

Burke was still an object of envy Wednesday night, when Legace, the Kings’ goalie by default, dove left, dove right, reached up with his glove and down with his stick and generally scored a 9.9 in floor exercise in stopping 49 of 50 shots in a 1-1 tie with the Panthers.

At the other end of the ice, Burke barely broke a sweat in dealing with only 19 King shots.

Well, maybe a little sweat.

“We had only 19 or 20 shots, but I think Burke made an unbelievable stop on one by Yanic [Perreault on a power play in the third period],” said Coach Larry Robinson, who was disappointed in the overall effort of the Kings, as he has been most of the season.

“We’re all sitting, thinking he had a wide-open net, and [Burke] made a huge stop. We [also] put a couple off the crossbar that might have made a difference, who knows?”

Panther Coach Terry Murray said, “I’ve got to give their goaltender a lot of credit. He’s on an emergency recall situation [and faced] 50 shots. . . . I’ll give him a lot of marks.”

Florida gave him a lot of challenges, which perhaps surprisingly, might have helped a bit.

“I would rather face a lot more shots than just stand there,” Legace said. “Personally, my mind would be starting to wander if I only got eight shots in the first two periods.”

There was no time for Legace’s mind to wander Wednesday night.

Going into the third period, Florida had outshot the Kings, 29-9.

Legace was staked to a 1-0 lead on Luc Robitaille’s goal at 5:34 of the opening period that came on a trip from behind the goal, when he slipped the puck past Burke.

That was matched by Panther Dave Gagner’s goal on a rebound of a shot by Gord Murphy at 43 seconds of the second period.

“I thought I had made an all right save coming across [on Murphy’s shot],” Legace said. “But the rebound was right there.”

The entire scenario was still a bit surreal for Legace, who was a Long Beach Ice Dog until Sunday night, when he got a call to report to the Kings on Monday. He figured that a goalie had been lost in their game against Colorado, then found out from a couple of reporters than he had heard only half the story.

Both Stephane Fiset and Jamie Storr had suffered groin strains, and Legace was reporting to Florida for starting duty.

“I expect to be scored on,” he said as part of his new NHL regimen, perhaps to ease the churning in his mind.

That he was scored on only once is why the Kings got “a lucky point for us,” Robinson said. “You take this one and don’t look back.”

But Robinson can’t help himself, because the look back is more pleasant than what he saw Wednesday night, when the Kings spent most of the first period killing penalties that were largely self-inflicted wounds.

And most of the night resting on their laurels, in his opinion.

“Everybody else seemed more concerned about us having Manny in goal than I was,” Robinson said. “I saw what he did for us in training camp. Right now, I probably have more faith in young kids coming to play than anything else. I know one thing: that they’re going to give you 100% and they’re going to work hard. And that’s more than I can say for our team on most nights, and that’s the most disheartening thing for me.”

King center Nathan LaFayette was heartened by the whole night. “I’ve been facing Manny since we were 10 years old in the Metro Toronto Hockey League,” he said. “I knew he could play.

“He faced 50 shots tonight, and there was no way we were going to lose this game.”

For all of the effort, Legace had to work overtime in his first NHL start, then overtime in the overtime, when Kirk Muller checked Perreault into the side boards, breaking two panes of glass, which required 20 minutes to replace.

“My legs just tightened up and I had to sit on the bench for a while,” Legace said.

And then return to face two more shots.

It was all he expected in playing in the NHL. “And more,” he added.

Fifty shots more.