He’s Top-of-the-Line Substitute

King forward Eric Belanger has played mostly as a center for Coach Andy Murray the last two seasons, so he was as surprised as anyone to find out before Saturday’s Game 6 that he was replacing injured wing Adam Deadmarsh on the team’s top line.

“I didn’t have a clue until I walked in before the game and saw my name on the board,” said Belanger, who has been used mainly as a checking forward since returning off the injured list nearly a month ago.

Skating with Jason Allison and Ziggy Palffy, Belanger didn’t do anything fancy, but he played well enough to get the job done. In 16 minutes 16 seconds of ice time, Belanger had two shots on goal and won eight of 15 faceoff attempts. He also blocked three shots and had two steals.

“I just tried to stay focused,” Belanger said. “It’s a totally different game playing wing. ... With Jason and Ziggy, they read off each other so well. I think I did a good job of playing with them. The key is to get the puck out and to get it to those guys. That’s what Adam has been doing, and I just tried to do the same thing.”

Because of the offensive firepower Colorado has, Murray was not worried about Belanger skating with Allison and Palffy.

“We felt that Eric checks well, skates well and has offensive instincts that would be a good fit on that particular line,” Murray said.

“I thought it was a real challenge for him to have the opportunity to play there and I thought he responded very well. His puck pursuit and puck possession was very good. I thought he was very solid.”

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Colorado was without Peter Forsberg, but the Avalanche did have forward Milan Hejduk, who sat out the final 20 games of the regular season and the first five games of the series, back in the lineup.

“In the first period, I felt kind of weird because it was like I was somewhere else and not on the ice,” Hejduk said. “I felt better after that.”

Hejduk did not open up on Colorado’s top line, but after the Kings took a 2-0 lead, he joined Alex Tanguay and Joe Sakic for the majority of the game.

“For a guy who has not played in a long time, I thought that [Hejduk] played a decent game,” Colorado Coach Bob Hartley said. “He had a real good [scoring] chance there in the second period.”

Lonnie White

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After failing to close out the Kings in Games 5 and 6 for the second year in a row, is doubt starting to creep in among the Avalanche?

“I don’t think so,” said King defenseman Aaron Miller, traded from the Avalanche last season.

“We did the same thing last year and I thought their best game of the series was Game 7. They were all over us.”

The Kings still rue their 5-1 loss in Game 7 at Denver last May.

“We were a little upset last year,” center Bryan Smolinski said. “We had a chance to put them out and move forward. We weren’t satisfied and hopefully we have the monkey off our back. We want to go in there [Monday night at Denver] and play a solid game and maybe steal one.”

If they win, the Kings would jump right into another rematch, playing the Detroit Red Wings in a Western Conference semifinal series that probably would start Thursday night at Detroit.

Last season, the Kings lost the first two games of a first-round series against the Red Wings before winning the next four to advance to play the Avalanche.

With a victory over the Kings on Monday, the Avalanche would play the San Jose Sharks.

Jerry Crowe