Belanger, Kings Get Heads Out of Clouds

By HELENE ELLIOTT

April 21, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

DETROIT —

Two days after he inscribed his name in the Kings’ record book by scoring the winning goal in their remarkable 4-3 comeback victory over the Detroit Red Wings, Eric Belanger was back to scrapping and hitting and trying to feed linemate Luc Robitaille in practice Friday.

“We just won a game,” Belanger said. “We didn’t win the Cup. We didn’t win the series. It was fun, but now we have to move on.”

Belanger’s businesslike attitude was typical of the Kings’ approach to today’s game, which will put one team a victory away from advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

The Kings were elated when Belanger capped their rally at 2:36 of overtime and sent the series back to Detroit tied, 2-2. Some gazed in disbelief at the final stat sheet, as if seeing it in print still didn’t make it real. But they soon stored away the memory to be savored later--much later, they hope--and refocused on elevating their game and maintaining their poise in the noisy caldron of Joe Louis Arena.

The Red Wings have not lost at home since Dec. 27, a 19-0-2 streak. And the Kings have not won a road playoff game since June 1, 1993, when they defeated the Montreal Canadiens, 4-1, in the opener of the Stanley Cup finals. They’ve lost eight consecutive road playoff games, including 5-3 and 4-0 losses in Detroit in Games 1 and 2. Game 6 will be Monday at Staples Center, but a seventh game, if necessary, will be in Detroit on Wednesday.

“Of course, there’s a certain amount of worries,” Detroit forward Sergei Fedorov said of his team’s mood after its loss Wednesday. “We know we screwed the game up. It’s one of those things, but you can’t stick on it. We’ve got to perform and work hard. It’s as simple as that.”

Maybe not quite that simple.

The Red Wings will again be without forwards Brendan Shanahan (broken foot) and Steve Yzerman (injured ankle), rugged winger Darren McCarty has been hobbled by a bad ankle and defenseman Chris Chelios has had trouble shooting and handling the puck because of a broken left thumb. For the Red Wings to win, they must grind out some goals, protect the lead if they get it and avoid bad penalties. In addition, Fedorov, who had two goals and five points in the first two games but was held to one assist in the next two, must again be a force.

“There shouldn’t be panic,” forward Kris Draper said. “The guys have been in this situation before. It’s a 2-2 series. It’s two out of three at home for us. . . . We did what we wanted to do at the start of the series, obviously. And they did what they had to do to beat us there. I’m sure our fans are going to be right behind us, and we have to feed off that.”

Although the Kings squeezed out two late power-play goals, they’re two for 18 (11.1%) with a man advantage. Their penalty killing is the worst among the 16 playoff teams, after having killed only 14 of 22 disadvantages (63.6%).

“I’m still of the opinion we haven’t played as well in these four games as we should have,” King Coach Andy Murray said.

Like his teammates, Belanger is aware of everything that might work against the Kings. But he sees much more working for them, and his emergence as a key figure in the series is as strong an argument as any that the Kings have the pluck to prevail.

Belanger, 23, was hurt for so much of the 1999-2000 season while playing in the American Hockey League, he wasn’t on what Murray calls his “ghost roster” last summer. “He was quite a ways down the list,” Murray said. “But the impression he made at Lowell [after being demoted in late October] was good. He might be one of our best hitters. You look at him off the ice and he doesn’t look big but you look at him on the ice and he looks big.

“Whether he had scored that goal or not the other night . . . he was our best player in Game 4.”

Ian Laperriere, the third member of the “French Connection” trio with Belanger and Robitaille, rejoiced in the attention Belanger received after scoring the winner.

“I was glad for him,” said Laperriere, whose tipped pass set up Belanger for a close-range shot on Detroit goalie Chris Osgood. “I played with him most of the season and I know he was used to scoring a lot of goals in juniors and in the minors, and it was difficult for him to have nine goals this season.

“The goal he scored was like 20. It was the biggest of the year. He worked hard for that, and that’s a good lesson, that you work hard and good things happen.”

But that was then. This is now. And Belanger, who is on a two-way contract that pays him on different scales when he’s in the minors and when he’s in the NHL, has learned to live for the moment.

“They’ve been through a lot of things, the Red Wings, so we know they’ll be ready,” he said. “We have to get the same approach we had in the last part of the last game. I do like our chances. We know what we’re capable of doing. The last game, we didn’t play our best and we still won the game. We know what we can do. When everybody pulls together we have good chemistry, and that’s huge during the playoffs.”

The Kings know they will have to pull together today as much as they ever have. They’re prepared, emotionally and physically.

“We’ve been good throughout the whole year at coming back to earth after a big win and coming back and doing our job,” goaltender Felix Potvin said. “We’ve got to raise our level of play and block everything else out. They’ve been real good at home, and there’s no doubt we need to play our ‘A’ game.”

When the Kings trailed Detroit in games, 2-0, Murray said he only wanted to extend the series to have a sixth game at Staples Center. Wednesday’s victory secured that, and now he’s getting greedy.

“I was thinking if we get Game 6, we’ll win that sixth game at home,” he said. “The way things have turned out now, there is the potential to make Game 6 the last one. But I’m sure the Red Wings will have a lot of say in that.”

GAME 5

TODAY

KINGS

at DETROIT

Noon, Channel 7

Series tied, 2-2

INSIDE

OLD AND

IN THE WAY?

The Red Wings, whose average age is a playoff high of over 30, were seemingly fatigued late in their two losses in L.A.

D10

VISNOVSKY