Fits for the Kings

Felix “The Cat” Potvin and the Kings are down to their last playoff life.

The Colorado Avalanche, playing with admirable patience, tenacity and skill, broke open a contentious game by scoring three times in the second period, claiming a 3-0 victory Wednesday at Staples Center. In winning its third consecutive game and taking a 3-1 lead in their second-round series, the Avalanche pushed the Kings within a loss of ending the joy ride that carried them to a first-round upset of the Detroit Red Wings.

“I told our players anybody who doesn’t want to get on the plane [today] has got the out right now,” King Coach Andy Murray said, his voice vibrating with anger and frustration over his team’s inability to satisfy a sellout crowd of 18,478 in what might have been its final home game.

“If we win one game in Denver, we’ll win the series because we’ll win Game 6 back here. . . . We’ll get a pretty good read of our team Friday. We’ll see if we have a full plane or not.”

The Avalanche can advance to the Western Conference finals for the third consecutive season and fifth in the last six with a victory Friday at the Pepsi Center, where the teams split their first two games. A sixth game, if necessary, would be Sunday at Staples Center. A seventh game would be Wednesday in Denver.

“It’s a one-game series,” King center Bryan Smolinski said. “We’ve got to scratch and claw and find a way to put it past that. If we can do that, we can win.”

They scratched and clawed and stormed the net in the first period Wednesday, only to be stymied by goaltender Patrick Roy, who made 10 of his 21 saves in the first 20 minutes. The shutout was his second of the series and 17th in postseason play.

“Unbelievable is the only word,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said. “Patrick put on a performance that very few goalies are capable of doing. We could have headed back to the hotel after the first period if not for Patrick.”

Roy’s early excellence bought his teammates precious time to wait for fortunate bounces and force the Kings into mistakes, which occurred in the second period. Alex Tanguay, Milan Hejduk (on a power play) and Chris Drury scored within a span of less than 15 minutes (the latter two in 1:46), silencing the crowd and putting the game beyond the Kings’ flailing reach.

“They played their game plan,” Potvin said after his 33rd consecutive start, a string he insisted has not sapped his strength. “They came out of the first period 0-0 and won the game in the second period.

“They’ve got to win one more. We’re not going to give up. We’re going to go there and play hard and win Game 5 and have Game 6 back here. It can be done. If this was best of five, it would be over. They’ve got to win one more.”

Colorado played without center Joe Sakic, who injured his shoulder in Game 3. He could have played Wednesday, but Hartley said it made sense to wait until he is fully healed; with Tanguay, Hejduk, Drury and Peter Forsberg playing so well, Sakic was hardly missed.

“If I had an answer on how to stop [Forsberg] I’d tell you,” Smolinski said. “It’s not going to take one guy. It’s going to take five guys to stop him.”

Colorado’s second-period spree stunned the crowd into silence. Although some fans started a “Go Kings Go” chant with about a minute left, they were clearly despondent when the Avalanche skated off with a 3-0 lead.

As in Game 3, the Forsberg line was nearly unstoppable. Capitalizing on a combination of poor defensive zone coverage by the Kings and a fortunate bounce, the Avalanche took the lead at 3:55. As three Kings went toward Hejduk to take him out of the play, Hejduk passed down low to Tanguay, whose shot banked off the right foot of King defenseman Jere Karalahti and into the net on the team’s sixth shot.

Schneider was penalized for holding at 14:30, and Colorado capitalized at 16:27. Forsberg carried the puck into the zone and began a passing play that ended with Hejduk using a chopping motion to redirect a shot by Jon Klemm past Potvin for his third goal of the playoffs.

Then, while Nieminen held a King forward out of the way, Drury stole the puck from Karalahti at the Kings’ blue line and skated in alone on Potvin. He flicked a shot over Potvin’s left arm at 18:13 for his team-leading sixth playoff goal.

Roy held off the Kings the rest of the way, leaving them to ponder how they can prolong a season none of them want to see end.

“We have to go out there and put a full game together,” Glen Murray said. “We haven’t done that yet, and Friday would be a good time to start.”

For expanded coverage of the King-Avalanche series, including photo galleries and live updates, please visit the Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/nhlplayoffs

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

KINGS vs. COLORADO

Avalanche leads, 3-1

GAME 1

KINGS (OT) 4

COLORADO 3

GAME 2

COLORADO 2

KINGS 0

GAME 3

COLORADO 4

KINGS 3

GAME 4

COLORADO 3

KINGS 0

GAME 5

Friday at Colorado,

5 p.m., FSN2

GAME 6*

Sunday at Kings,

6:30 p.m., FSN

GAME 7*

Wednesday at Colorado,

7 p.m., FSN

* if necessary;

all times Pacific

*

COVERAGE

MOMENTUM

You don’t need a weather report to know the Avalanche is rolling downhill fast, burying everyone and everything in its path. D6

GAME REPORT D6

ALSO

BUFFALO 5

PITTSBURGH 2

Dominik Hasek stopped a penalty shot by Martin Straka that would have tied the score and the Sabres evened the series. D6