Kings Work Quickly

The booing started midway through the first period, the derisive chanting (“re-fund, re-fund”) early in the second.

Near the end, a disgusted fan threw his jersey onto the ice.

The Kings sent a riled mob into the bustling streets of Manhattan late Friday night, dominating the slow-starting New York Rangers in a 6-2 victory in front of an angry sellout crowd of 18,200 at Madison Square Garden.

The first of three goals by Adam Deadmarsh, whose hat trick was his first in 101 games with the Kings, and goals by Bryan Smolinski and rookie Alexander Frolov gave the Kings a 3-0 lead only 11 minutes 8 seconds into the game.

Derek Armstrong, acquired in an off-season trade with the Rangers, also scored for the Kings, whose victory was their first in four games and extended the home team’s winless streak to five games, among them three consecutive losses.

Goaltender Felix Potvin, whose record against the Rangers was his worst against any NHL opponent, was called upon to stop only 18 shots in winning for only the second time in eight decisions against the Rangers.

Less than eight minutes into the second period, the Kings led, 4-0.

“We came out the way we wanted, the way we have been when we’re rested,” King defenseman Mathieu Schneider said. “There aren’t a lot of teams that can really handle our speed when we jump on them right away, and these guys hadn’t seen us. I think we caught them by surprise and they were off their game.

“That makes our game easier. When you can get a jump on a team like that, it makes life a lot easier the rest of the night.”

It was only nine months ago that the Kings ended a 10-game, 12-year winless streak in the Garden with a 4-0 victory Jan. 9. And they found out earlier in the day that they’d again be without high-scoring winger Ziggy Palffy, who sat out for the fourth time in five games because of a strained groin.

But the Rangers, whose last-place standing in the Atlantic Division despite a star-studded roster and one of the league’s highest payrolls makes them an easy target for disgruntled fans, were on their heels from the beginning, Deadmarsh scoring a power-play goal on a rebound at 5:26 to start the onslaught.

After Smolinski scored on a shot from the right circle at 10:54 and Frolov scored on a breakaway at 11:08, the first NHL goal for the Russian right wing, Ranger Coach Bryan Trottier pulled goaltender Mike Richter for Daniel Blackburn.

And when Armstrong beat Blackburn on a rebound at 7:20 of the second period, making the score 4-0, the chanting from the crowd only got uglier.

“We’ve got to give ourselves some credit,” King Coach Andy Murray said, indicating that the Garden crowd should too. “We are not an easy team to play against, and we were going right from the drop of the puck.

“The first 30 minutes of the game, we were unbelievable.”

Deadmarsh scored his second power-play goal on a deflection at 2:33 of the third period. He scored his third goal, at even strength, on a breakaway at 13:01 after taking a pass from Jason Allison, who had three assists.

The hat trick was the second of his career, his first since he scored three goals for the Colorado Avalanche against the Edmonton Oilers on Jan. 5, 2000. But he seemed almost embarrassed by it. He scored his second goal simply by getting in the way of a shot by Smolinski, the puck ricocheting off his right wrist.

“I didn’t even see it,” he said. “It’s obviously a cheesy goal for me.”