Second Wind Propels Kings

There was no shortage of advice for Jamie Storr after one period Saturday.

Luc Robitaille skated up to the Kings’ goalie during a television timeout and gave him a Knute Rockne knockoff.

“It’s our game to win,” Robitaille said.

Said Storr later, laughing: “Luc’s always saying some kind of stuff.”

Don Edwards counseled Storr at intermission, and that advice he took to cut off the Colorado Avalanche at the pass in a 6-4 King victory before a sellout Staples Center crowd announced at 18,118.

Four second-period goals--three on power plays--in seven King shots turned the game around, but not until Storr stopped the bleeding that produced a 3-1 Avalanche lead after 20 minutes.

“I wasn’t seeing the puck in the first period,” said Storr, who like the Kings is 6-0-2 in his last eight games and has played 13 in a row.

“Every time I made a move to get around a guy, I was either going the wrong way or I was doing something to block myself. I wasn’t able to see.”

Instead, he saw pucks launched by Ville Nieminen, Jon Klemm and Alex Tanguay after they were in the net, countered only by a goal from Robitaille.

Edwards, the King goalie consultant, suggested more aggressiveness, going out to meet the puck instead of waiting for it to arrive, and Storr saw clearly the rest of the game, giving up only one more goal in 35 shots.

In all, Colorado had 47 shots--the Kings had only 22--and Storr spent much of the game diving into a cluster of skates, gloving the puck and waiting for the house to fall on him. There was more traffic around the crease than the Democrats generated here in August.

“Our undisciplined play cost us in the second period,” Avalanche Coach Bob Hartley said. “That was the game. We fought back in the third. We had a great third, but Jamie Storr was there with a couple of big saves and we couldn’t get the big goal.”

Colorado outshot the Kings, 19-5, in the third period.

The second period was the key.

“We talked about trying to get them into penalty situations,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “We didn’t think we skated particularly well in the first period.”

Colorado was playing its third game in four nights. The idea was to make the Avalanche tired.

It worked.

Lubomir Visnovsky started the puck rolling in the second period, taking a pass from Jozef Stumpel and converting at 4:18. Then the power-play barrage began.

Robitaille’s second goal came only 16 seconds into a five-on-three King advantage, and Ziggy Palffy scored only 22 seconds later to produce a 4-3 lead, countered by Colorado’s Aaron Miller.

Palffy scored again, sending the puck past Patrick Roy and into a space only inches wide after taking a pass from Visnovsky on a power play with 22 seconds left in the period. That made the score 5-4, and the Kings were never headed.

The speed with which fortunes changed left everyone gasping, almost as much as the chippy play that turned the area next to the boards into no man’s land, and the space in front of the net into a minefield. In all, there were 84 recorded hits--49 by the Kings--and every whistle was followed by an extracurricular shove that went on nobody’s score sheet.

“I’ll tell you, I want to watch that game on tape,” said Storr. “It looked like a fun game to watch.”

Not if you were Roy, the all-time NHL leader in victories who carried a 1.76 goals-against average and 10-2-3 record into Saturday’s game. He gave up five goals and watched Nelson Emerson’s shot with 54 seconds to play skitter into an empty net.

“Palffy made a good shot,” Roy said of the goal that gave the Kings the lead for good. “I was maybe a little frustrated because it seemed like every shot they made was just inside the post.”

Also frustrating is the Kings’ dominance of Colorado, which is 2-8-1 over its last 11 games against the Kings in Southern California.

“People say we’re on a roll,” said Murray. “To me, a roll lasts only 60 minutes.”

Or on Saturday, 20 minutes that includes three power plays and goaltending to make them stand up.

*

DUCKS 6

PHOENIX 2

Anaheim’s win ends a five-game losing streak. D4

ALSO

MINOR DEAL

Ducks make trade with Boston. D4