It’s Not Too Late for Kings

The later the game, the better the Kings play.

Jozef Stumpel’s deflection of a shot by Mathieu Schneider with 6:27 to play in the third period Sunday night gave the Kings a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings at Staples Center, ending the Kings’ 14-game playoff losing streak and cutting Detroit’s lead in the teams’ first-round series to 2-1.

The game started at 8:40 p.m. and ended at 11:35.

The decisive goal was set up on a misplay by Detroit goalie Chris Osgood. His attempted clearing pass was intercepted by the Kings along the right-wing boards and Ziggy Palffy controlled it. He passed to defenseman Schneider, who skated in several strides from the blue line and unleashed a shot that glanced off the shaft of Stumpel’s stick and past Osgood, setting off a frenzy among the fans remaining from a standing-room-only crowd of 18,478.

The Kings had not won a playoff game since June 1, 1993, when they prevailed over Montreal in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. The victory was their first postseason triumph at Staples Center and ended a six-game home playoff losing streak that extended back to their tenancy at the Forum. Their last home playoff victory was on May 27, 1993, when they defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4, in overtime in the conference finals.

“We don’t have to hear about it [the streak] anymore,” said Luc Robitaille, who scored the Kings’ first goal. “We wanted to come out strong tonight. We got outmuscled the last game and we didn’t want that to happen again. We had everybody on board. You’re not going to beat a team like that unless you have everybody playing together.”

Said goalie Felix Potvin: “The only thing we accomplished is putting ourselves back in the series. We’ve got to make sure we bring the same effort in Game 4.”

Game 4 will be Wednesday at Staples Center. Game 5 will be Saturday at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Potvin made two fine glove saves to preserve the tie in the third period.

In the first two minutes, with a delayed penalty pending against the Kings, he snared a shot Igor Larionov ripped from the left circle. And at 4:01, he grabbed a shot by Vyacheslav Kozlov from the lower edge of the right circle seconds after a Detroit power play had ended.

Osgood made a close-in glove save on Palffy 11 minutes into the period to keep the teams even.

The Kings outshot the Red Wings, 24-23.

King Coach Andy Murray, hoping to shake up his team after losing the first two games of the series, took defenseman Jaroslav Modry and winger Scott Thomas out of the lineup. He reverted to using six defensemen, instead of the seven he played Saturday at Detroit, and inserted forwards Steve Kelly and Stu Grimson into the lineup.

The Kings hoped the travel and back-to-back games would be tougher for the Red Wings--whose average age is over 30--and the Kings tried to magnify their aches and fatigue by hitting them at every chance in the first period.

The Kings had a two-man advantage for 1:40 early in the second period and got two shots but couldn’t score. However, they Kings ended two futility streaks at 8:21 of the second period, when Robitaille gave them their first lead of the series and first lead in a playoff game since they had a 3-0 lead over St. Louis in Game 3 of their 1998 first-round series in a game they lost, 4-3.

Robitaille added to his club record with his 39th playoff goal as a King, touching off a loud celebration. Reunited with Eric Belanger and Ian Laperriere, with whom he played much of the regular season, Robitaille was involved offensively and turned a pass-out from Belanger into a 1-0 King lead when he whipped a shot from the inside edge of the left circle.

The Kings had a good opportunity to pad that lead when Detroit winger Pat Verbeek got a double minor for high sticking, punishment for cutting King defenseman Mattias Norstrom above the right eye. However, the Kings mustered two shots, to one for the Red Wings.

Detroit tied the score at 18:02, two seconds after Laperriere returned to the ice after serving a debatable charging penalty. The Red Wings spread out throughout the Kings’ zone while they had the man advantage, passing the puck repeatedly in hope of getting the perfect shot. They got it when Larionov passed to Kozlov, down low. He found Nicklas Lidstrom--who had sneaked in from the blue line--and the Swedish defenseman whipped a shot past Potvin from about 20 feet out.

GAME 4

DETROIT at KINGS

7:30 Wednesday, FSN

Red Wings lead, 2-1

SUNDAY

NEW JERSEY: 2

CAROLINA: 0

Devils lead, 2-0

DALLAS: 3

EDMONTON: 2

Stars lead, 2-1