Kings Have Empty Feeling

Just in time to send the Kings to the brink of elimination, the NHL’s best defense and No. 1 goaltender finally found their way into the playoffs.

Patrick Roy turned aside 32 shots, former King Steven Reinprecht scored the only goal and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Kings, 1-0, in Game 4 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series Tuesday night in front of 18,700 at Staples Center.

The largest crowd ever to watch a hockey game in California saw Roy shake a season-long slump against the Kings, giving the defending Stanley Cup champions a 3-1 lead in the series and ending the Kings’ 12-game home unbeaten streak.

Winless in their last eight road games, the Kings face the daunting task of having to win twice at Denver in the next six days or see their season end.

What’s more, they played most of the third period without first-line winger Adam Deadmarsh, who suffered a neck strain when he dived headfirst into the end boards less than a minute into the period.

X-rays were negative and Deadmarsh will be reevaluated today, but Coach Andy Murray said he would play in Game 5 Thursday night at Denver.

The Kings, who had been 10-0-2 at Staples Center since March 2, outshot the Avalanche for the first time in eight games this season, but their 32-25 advantage in shots on goal only added to their frustration.

“People will talk about this being a defensive game and there were a lot of physical confrontations,” Murray said, “but both goalies were outstanding. We had a lot more chances than they did, but we couldn’t beat Patrick.”

After giving up a league-low 162 goals in the regular season, the Avalanche gave up three in each of the first three games of the series. But with a chance to put a virtual chokehold on the series, it limited the Kings’ top offensive players, Jason Allison and Ziggy Palffy, to one shot between them.

“We played hard, we got all kinds of chances, but Patty played a great game,” said King defenseman Aaron Miller, a former teammate. “When he’s like that, he’s real tough. We just weren’t going to get one by him.”

The shutout was Roy’s 20th in the playoffs, extending his NHL record. He also is the all-time leader in victories with 140, and in minutes and games played.

But Roy, who led the NHL with a career-best 1.94 goals-against average in the regular season and gave up as many as three goals only 21 times in 66 starts before Tuesday, had not played up to his usual high standard against Kings, giving up at least three goals six times in seven games. His goals-against average, 1.85 against the rest of the league, was 3.17 against the Kings. His save percentage, .929 against everybody else, was .866 against the Kings.

“Every one of the goals we’ve scored,” Murray said before the game, “the number of bodies we’ve had around the net has been high. Most goals, you’ll see two or three King jerseys right around Patrick.

“We talked before the series about making his goal a magnet for the puck and for bodies. If the puck gets there and we get bodies there and we get a crowd there, there isn’t a goalie in the world that can stop the puck if he can’t see it. If you let Patrick see the puck, you’re never going to score on him.”

Ignoring the derisive chants of “Pa-trick, Pa-trick,” Roy was sharp from the start in Game 4, stopping a close-range shot by Eric Belanger in the opening minute. He made five saves during a two-minute King power play early in the second.

Fortunately for the Kings, goaltender Felix Potvin was equal to the task, for the most part.

But Reinprecht, who also scored the winning goal in Game 2, netted his third goal of the series on a shot from the left faceoff circle with 14:03 to play in the second period.

With Avalanche winger Peter Forsberg tied up by Brad Chartrand in the left corner, Chris Drury corralled the puck and slid a pass to Reinprecht, who whistled a shot over Potvin’s glove and off the bottom of the crossbar.

“I took the pass and I got off a shot, but I didn’t know where it went,” Reinprecht said. “It took two or three seconds before I realized it was a goal.”

Roy stopped King defenseman Mathieu Schneider on a breakaway late in the period.

Potvin made glove saves on point-blank shots by Rob Blake and Radim Vrbata less than a minute later.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The Series

Avalanche leads, 3-1

GAME 1

COLORADO...4

KINGS...3

GAME 2

COLORADO...5

KINGS...3

GAME 3

KINGS...3

COLORADO...1

GAME 4

COLORADO...1

KINGS...0

GAME 5

THURSDAY AT COLORADO

6:30 p.m.

Fox Sports Net 2

GAME 6

SATURDAY AT KINGS

3 p.m.-x

Channel 7

GAME 7

MONDAY AT COLORADO

6:30 p.m.-x

Fox Sports Net

Times PDT; x-if necessary