Wings, No Prayer, for Kings

Detroit’s power play wasn’t hot enough, so here the Red Wings were in the first period Monday night at Staples Center, five of them against three Kings.

It was like giving a crapshooter a pair of loaded dice.

Tic, Nicklas Lidstrom sent the puck to Igor Larionov behind the goal line.

Tac, Larionov sent it to Sergei Fedorov, alone in front of the net.

Toe, Fedorov popped it past King goalie Stephane Fiset to send the Red Wings off and running to a 2-1 victory that gave them a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series.

“We just got a couple more power-play goals than they did,” winger Darren McCarty said. “It was a tight game, it really was. It was tight like the first one. It makes you wonder if Game 4 is going to be like Game 2.”

Game 1 was a 2-0 Detroit win; Game 2 an 8-5 Red Wing triumph.

On Monday night, the Red Wings added a Tomas Holmstrom goal in the second period on--what else?--a power play. After going 0 for 6 on man-advantage opportunities in Game 1 last Thursday, they have gone five for 13.

They won Game 2 with three power-play goals. They won Monday night with two. Anybody notice a trend here?

“They’ve done that to a lot of teams,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “They have the best power play in the league.”

The Kings closed to within a goal at 2:35 of the final period when Luc Robitaille took a backhanded pass from Jozef Stumpel and scored past both Chris Chelios and goalie Chris Osgood.

It was Robitaille’s second goal of the series and it came on his first shot of the game.

But it was too little too late, in large part because the Kings did exactly what they didn’t want to do, which was spend time in the penalty box. Not that they didn’t get their chances, mind you. The Kings were 0 for 7 on their own power plays, and one of them lasted four minutes.

The Kings managed only one shot in that one, a weak effort by Ziggy Palffy.

They had 11:29 of power-play time, compared with Detroit’s 7:21, though that time was certainly truncated because of the goals.

“There’s a difference between being physical and doing things that were unnecessary,” Murray said. “They did some things that were unnecessary too, so we shouldn’t just talk about things that were unnecessary on our part. But we didn’t make them pay.”

The Kings are 0 for 16 on the power play through three games of this series.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to score on our power plays,” Robitaille said. “If you don’t score on power plays, you’re not going to win many games.”

Or any game against Detroit.

On the first goal, Stumpel was dismissed from the ice for two minutes for cuffing Brendan Shanahan to end a play in which Chelios escaped a penalty for tripping Palffy.

The Kings killed off 55 seconds, but then Rob Blake retaliated for an uncalled crosscheck by Holmstrom by trying to loosen his teeth with a stick.

Detroit needed only 22 seconds of five-on-three time before connecting its tic-tac-toe.

“It’s not often when you get the two-man advantage because it’s a momentum swing,” Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman said. “It was a pretty hectic start, and I give a lot of credit to Holmstrom in particular. He takes a lot.”

He also gives a lot, as he did in scoring goal No. 2 from his usual spot, in front of the net, where he withstood pushing and shoving from Fiset and a few of his friends before deflecting Lidstrom’s shot between his legs and into the net for a 2-0 lead at 14:40 of the second period.

Until Robitaille’s goal, the Kings had managed only 12 shots, only three of them on six power plays.

At game’s end, there was enough black and blue around to keep the trainers busy for a week.

And at game’s end, Detroit stood one game from a series sweep. Only two teams have come back from an 0-3 playoff deficit: The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs, who rallied against Detroit; and the 1975 New York Islanders, who came back against Pittsburgh.

“We can’t worry about winning four games,” defenseman Garry Galley said. “We’ve got to be concerned about winning one.”

To that end, the Kings report for work this morning at their El Segundo rink.

STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS

Kings vs. Detroit

Detroit leads best-of-seven series, 3-0.

GAME 1

Detroit 2, Kings 0

GAME 2

Detroit 8, Kings 5

GAME 3

Detroit 2, Kings 1

GAME 4

Wed. at Staples Center,

7 p.m., Fox Sports Net, ESPN**

*GAME 5

Friday at Detroit, 4 p.m., Fox Sports Net, ESPN**

*GAME 6

Sunday at Staples Center, noon, ABC

*GAME 7

April 25 at Detroit, 4 p.m., Fox Sports Net, ESPN**

*if necessary

**subject to blackout locally

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COVERAGE

HELENE ELLIOTT

The Red Wings may claim it has been a close series, but the truth is they are deeper, more experienced and just plain better. Page 9

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ROUNDUP: Page 9