Robitaille Adds a Punch to Kings’ Knockout Win

Luc Robitaille is better known as a goal scorer than a fighter. And he’s better at lighting the red light than lighting into an opponent, judging by his two unsuccessful bouts with Detroit defenseman Chris Chelios Saturday.

“I thought he suckered me the first time, and I was a little upset,” Robitaille said after the first two-fight game he could recall. “All that matters is it was a big game for us and we won it.”

Robitaille’s fighting spirit, if not his fighting, carried the day. He scored two goals and collected an assist in the Kings’ 6-3 rout of the Red Wings before a California-record crowd of 18,477 at Staples Center, which ended Detroit’s NHL-best unbeaten streak at 10-0-3 and extended the Kings’ fledgling streak to 4-0-1.

Jozef Stumpel, displaying admirable puck control and verve, had a goal and three assists, and goaltender Felix Potvin stopped 29 shots to lift the Kings within five points of Phoenix and Edmonton for the final Western Conference playoff berth.

Robitaille collected 24 penalty minutes Saturday--he had 38 minutes in the preceding 64 games--but his feistiness energized his teammates. Although he’s hardly a regular visitor to the penalty box, his career-best 63-goal, 125-point season in 1992-93 was the same one in which he had a career-high 100 penalty minutes.

“We’ve got to do whatever it takes to win,” Robitaille said when asked if he will mix it up more. “It’s part of the game.”

The Kings played an impressive game against the Red Wings, who hadn’t lost since Jan. 30 at New Jersey, and they did it with tenacity, strong special-teams play and a commitment to team play. They converted three of six power-play opportunities and killed eight of nine disadvantages.

“Obviously lately, we don’t lose too many games, so we feel pretty good,” Stumpel said. “We have more confidence. Even when we are down a goal, we don’t panic and we think success is going to come.”

Although the Red Wings scored on their first shot, by Tomas Holmstrom at 4:12, the Kings didn’t fold. They controlled the play ever more decisively as the period wore on and emerged with a 3-1 lead.

The Kings tied the game at 8:45 after Stumpel won a faceoff from Steve Yzerman in the Red Wings’ end and slid the puck back to the blue line. Aaron Miller passed the puck to Mattias Norstrom, who crept in from the left point and launched the puck toward the net. Adam Deadmarsh, standing with his back to Chris Osgood, deflected the puck into the net for his first goal as a King.

Another faceoff win led to another King goal, at 14:05. Stumpel bested Igor Larionov and got the puck to Glen Murray, who scored on his second try.

Just 67 seconds later, Nelson Emerson, who has found goals tough to come by, scored his second goal in 12 games by using the Detroit defense as a screen and sending a wrist shot under Osgood’s glove.

The Kings’ power play clicked again at 3:09 of the second period. Stumpel created the chance with a superb pass to the slot as he was skating behind the net, and Robitaille finished it off for his 32nd goal.

A tussle behind the net after Potvin saved a short-handed shot by Yzerman left the Kings with a two-man advantage, and they capitalized at 6:12, when Stumpel swatted in the rebound of a shot by Murray for a 5-1 lead.

The two-man advantage was prolonged when Yzerman was penalized for slashing after the goal. With Osgood off balance after stopping a shot by Lubomir Visnovsky, Stumpel took a shot that glanced off Robitaille’s stick at the seven-minute mark, Robitaille’s 33rd goal.

“I feel pretty good. My [broken] toe is better and my hamstring isn’t bothering me and I’m getting lots of ice time, on the power play, penalty killing and at even strength,” said Stumpel, who missed two games last month because of the hamstring strain.

Although the Kings’ 4-0-1 streak coincides with their trade of Rob Blake to Colorado, Coach Andy Murray said there’s no link.

“It was always around us and Rob handled it so well, I still say it’s a lame excuse to use for our lack of performance,” Murray said. “We don’t have Rob now and it’s almost like we have no choice and we play as a team, or we’ll start going down.”