Fiset Makes Sure This Game Doesn’t Get Away From Him

With 18 minutes, 24 seconds played Sunday afternoon, Colorado’s Joe Sakic came steaming into the slot, took a pass and had an old friend dead in his sights.

Sakic reached back and fired. Stephane Fiset was in the accepted goalie position: shoulders square to the puck, body between it and the net. He snared the shot in his glove, play stopped, and Sakic was left shaking his head.

It was part of the process of Fiset’s hanging onto a lead that was the product of first-period goals from Ziggy Palffy, Glen Murray and Jozef Stumpel in the Kings’ 3-2 victory before 18,118 at Staples Center.

And it was also part of Fiset’s return from goaltending oblivion.

“Every time you get a 3-0 lead, it’s easier [for a goalie],” Fiset said. “It doesn’t matter who you are playing against.”

In this case, it definitely matters to Fiset when he’s playing against the Avalanche, his former employer in its Colorado and Quebec incarnations.

“We’ve been through some good times, and we’ve been through some bad times, so I’m always going to feel something when I beat those guys,” Fiset said.

It’s personal.

“You could see it,” teammate Rob Blake said. “He and Sakic are pretty good buddies, and you could hear them jawing back and forth every time he stopped him. Joe’s like, ‘Yah, I’m getting you,’ and Steph’s like, ‘Not this time.’ ”

Not any time. Colorado goals came from Dave Reid and Adam Deadmarsh.

The Kings and Fiset benefited from the return of Stumpel, who had missed seven games because of a bruised knee, and Murray, who had missed three games because of a bruised knee.

Stumpel occupied the attention of Colorado penalty-killers when Palffy took a pass from Luc Robitaille behind Avalanche goalie Marc Denis and banged the puck into an open net. Stumpel also scored the game’s third goal on a pass from Palffy.

Murray scored on a power play to give the Kings a 2-0 lead.

“It’s tough when you lose a Stumpel and Murray,” Blake said. “Offense is so hard to fill in for. Defense and hard work, you can bring guys in to do that, but offense is a gift. You can’t teach what they do, and over a long haul, not having guys like that is tough.”

The Kings were 3-11-2-1 in their 15 games before Sunday. They had dropped from the top of the Western Conference to ninth, one spot out of the playoffs with--true enough--a lot of games to play.

They were also coming off one of their worst efforts in a 5-2 loss to Dallas on Thursday night.

“We didn’t do a good job against Dallas,” said center Ian Laperriere, who was cut along his left eye after he was banged into the boards by Jon Klemm in the third period. “We had to play better against these guys.”

That the Kings did, with Marko Tuomainen blasting Sakic, Blake belting Ozolinsh and Aki Berg running over Shjon Podein, all in the first 90 seconds.

Tuomainen, in particular, kept up the pressure and finally Colorado’s Peter Forsberg had enough. He swung at Tuomainen, drew a roughing penalty and was watching when Palffy made it 1-0 at 8:57.

“It’s just a little frustrating to us,” Forsberg said. “I can’t take that many penalties.”

Klemm didn’t help matters when he hooked the Kings’ Bryan Smolinski only 37 seconds later. That power play resulted in Murray’s goal, and Stumpel followed at even strength when he took a pass from Palffy, who had taken one from Robitaille.

That trio had 22 points in the Kings’ first five games before being split up because of injuries.

Flush with a 3-0 lead, Fiset could relax and just play.

“I had been getting goals scored on me in the first period and not keeping the team in the game,” he said of a 2-7-1 stretch in which he developed some bad habits while trying to compensate for a hand injury.

The remedy was three games off, like it or not, and it paid off.

So did a 3-0 lead.

“When you get down, 3-0, you don’t deserve to win,” Sakic said.

“When you get ahead, 3-0, in the first period, you should win,” King Coach Andy Murray said.