Kings Alive, Maybe Kicking

Nothing against surfers, starlets or sunsets, but the Colorado Avalanche would rather not be in Los Angeles today.

Nor do the defending Stanley Cup champions believe they should be.

They believe they should not have to play the Kings in Game 6 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series today at Staples Center because they believe the goal that won Game 5 at Denver on Thursday night should not have counted.

They believe that Craig Johnson, in violation of NHL rules, kicked the puck past goaltender Patrick Roy 2 minutes 19 seconds into overtime, giving the Kings a 1-0 victory and cutting the Avalanche lead in the series to 3-2.

And they are not alone.

“The final score was a lie,” wrote Denver Post columnist Mark Kiszla, fervently echoing the Avalanche party line. “The Kings did not beat the Avalanche....

“The Kings cheated.”

The NHL rulebook says, “a goal cannot be scored by an attacking player who uses a distinct kicking motion to propel the puck into the net.”

Johnson, who had a Game 1 goal disallowed on a questionable call, proclaimed his innocence, saying that he repositioned his right skate slightly to redirect a pass from Jaroslav Modry.

“It’s how you interpret it, I guess,” Johnson said Friday. “I saw the puck coming and I just kind of turned my foot a little and tried to get it to my stick. It wasn’t a kicking motion. It was more of a deflection....

“The puck was coming pretty hard and I just tried to maybe get it on [Roy’s] pads and then get the rebound, and it just went in.”

Johnson said much the same thing in the postgame excitement.

Kiszla called him a liar.

“The Kings are stealing back home, laughing all the way, in possession of a victory that should have been nullified,” he wrote. “

To Avalanche Coach Bob Hartley, it was clear that Johnson’s skate “was going toward the net. And if that’s not a kicking motion, I don’t know.”

Said Roy, who had shut out the Kings for more than seven periods: “The person who made the call missed something because there is no way [Johnson] could score if he doesn’t make a bit of a forward motion [with his foot] in the direction of the net.”

The Kings saw it differently, of course, and replays seemed to support their view, though the definition of a “distinct kicking motion” is a little fuzzy.

Johnson did not lift his skate, nor drag it across the ice.

He rotated his ankle.

“To me, a kicking motion is getting behind the puck, and what happened with C.J., his skate blade was not behind the puck,” King Coach Andy Murray said Friday. “His skate was pretty well in front of the puck when it came toward him.

“To me, a kicking motion is when you go from behind the puck and move forward on the puck. That’s how I would look at it.”

To Murray, Johnson’s goal was not even questionable.

“There’s no doubt in my mind [it was a legal goal],” he said. “Just the same way there’s no doubt in Bob Hartley’s mind that it was kicked in.

“That’s the nature of it.”

A day later, however, Hartley seemed ready to let it go.

“Let’s be fair to ourselves, we didn’t get the job done,” the coach told reporters Friday in Colorado. “Obviously, we’re disappointed with last night’s game, but we want to make sure that we’re positive. The important thing right now is to redeem ourselves.”

But the Avalanche, which squandered a 3-1 series lead against the Kings last year before winning Game 7 at Denver, wanted to quell the Kings, whose 1-0 defeat Tuesday in Game 4 was their only loss in their last 13 home games.

The Kings aren’t going quietly. They played Thursday without forwards Adam Deadmarsh and Cliff Ronning, sidelined because of injuries, and in the first period lost defenseman Philippe Boucher, struck in the right eye by a deflected shot. But Felix Potvin has given up only one goal in more than 176 minutes.

Boucher won’t play today and Deadmarsh, who suffered a strained neck in Game 4, is doubtful. But Ronning is expected to return after sitting out two games because of concussion-like symptoms, replacing rookie Jaroslav Bednar.

“I know no one in that [Avalanche] locker room wanted to get on that plane,” King defenseman Aaron Miller said late Thursday night, “so now we have a chance to get them at home. We don’t have anything to lose now. They’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, and we’re trying to knock them off.”

By hook or by crook, the defending champions might say.