There’s No Waver to Murray as Fiset Will Remain in Lineup

It wasn’t that Stephane Fiset played badly. It’s just that he didn’t play well.

If that sounds like a semantic muddle worthy of a presidential candidate, well, it was a factor presented Sunday in the major decision Kings’ Coach Andy Murray made in preparation for tonight’s Game 3 of the first-round playoff series against Detroit.

Fiset will start for the Kings, slightly more than 48 hours after he gave up five goals in 17 Red Wing shots in an 8-5 loss at Detroit.

There is logic in the assessment both Murray and Fiset made about the goalie’s truncated performance.

“I think Stephane would agree that none of the goals in the first period were bad goals,” Murray said.

The Kings trailed, 4-3, after one period, 3-1 after three turnovers in their own end during the first 3:32.

“When Stephane is playing at his best, on some of those turnovers he makes some saves,” Murray said. “But I wouldn’t say they were bad goals.”

They were, however, opportunities to make the kind of inspirational save that could have kept the Kings in a game in which they rallied from two-goal deficits three times, but found themselves taking one step up and two steps back on the road to a 2-0 deficit in the best-of-seven series.

“I wasn’t making the big save like I was before, and after the fifth goal, the coach pulled me and that was fine with me because I wasn’t doing the job,” said Fiset, who had played strong down the stretch of the season and in a 2-0 loss in Game 1.

He was upbeat Sunday morning after Murray told him he will start Game 3.

“I think he made the right decision [to pull Fiset] and I’m happy I’m going back in,” the goalie said. “I’ve got my chance to come back harder [tonight].”

Fiset was pulled in favor of Jamie Storr at 3:27 of the second period after a goal by Kris Draper from the left wing.

“That wasn’t even a big-save opportunity,” Fiset said. “That was just a bad goal.

“I’m talking about the goals in the first period, the one Kris Draper came in from the corner and shot it [for the first of his two goals] . . . I could have made that save. Maybe the fourth goal, when it rolled over my shoulder and went behind me and I put it in the net myself.”

Detroit’s Martin Lapointe was there to tap it in for one of his three goals.

“Those goals, I wasn’t making the big save a goalie is supposed to make in the playoffs to keep his team in the game,” Fiset said.

His plight is hardly unprecedented. The Kings’ response, though, is something else.

Fiset was hammered for five goals in an 8-3 loss to St. Louis in the opening game of the Kings’ first-round series with the Blues two years ago.

Then-coach Larry Roinson pulled Fiset in favor of Storr, who finished that game, then started the next two--both of which resulted in one-goal losses--before he suffered a concussion in a collision with Geoff Courtnall.

A goalie controversy raged, and though Fiset played well in a 2-1 loss to St. Louis in the final game, he believed he had to win his job the next season.

Though he decided Saturday to start Fiset tonight, Murray asked for input from his assistant coaches, who reminded him of an important fact.

“I think Stephane has been our best goalie against the Detroit Red Wings,” Murray said.

Fiset was 2-0-1 against Detroit this season, and he gave up only one goal in 59-plus minutes of Game 1, lost by the Kings, 2-0. Detroit scores its final goal into an empty net.

Murray also is a proponent of expressing confidence with playing time. He pulled Fiset with the Kings down, 4-1, at Boston on March 25.

Murray chastised the Kings for failing to support their goalie and told Fiset he would start the next night at Atlanta.

The decision was conveyed before Storr took the ice and the Kings rallied for a 4-4 tie.

The next night, Fiset stopped 26 Thrasher shots in a 4-1 win.

“I’ve been consistent in my lineup, in my philosophy of giving players an opportunity to succeed,” Murray said. “When he has a setback, I show confidence in him. Maybe the reason Stephane is playing [tonight] is because of that system of coaching I have. I want to show support.”