Rescued by a Live Line

Doing their part to make a difference on Earth Day, the Kings recycled a winning formula from the regular season Monday night.

In the process, they saved their season from the junk heap.

Combining the offensive brilliance of Ziggy Palffy and Jason Allison with tight-checking defense and stellar goaltending by Felix Potvin, the Kings defeated the Colorado Avalanche, 3-1, in Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.

Palffy contributed two goals and one assist, Allison had one goal and two assists and Potvin made 30 saves in front of a sellout crowd of 18,519 at Staples Center, helping the Kings to their first victory in the best-of-seven series.

“There were a lot of things to like in our game tonight,” King Coach Andy Murray said. “We have to do that to certainly beat these guys.”

The Avalanche, which scored nine goals in the series’ first two games, was limited to only a first-period goal by Brad Larsen as the Kings extended their home unbeaten streak to 12 games, with a chance to add No. 13 in Game 4 tonight.

The Kings are 10-0-2 at Staples Center since March 2.

“We knew this was going to be a tough series,” said Avalanche center Joe Sakic, limited to one shot after scoring three goals in the first two games. “They came out and played desperate. We’ll have to come back [tonight] and get it back.”

Allison said the Kings’ defensive effort made the difference.

“I thought we played well enough offensively to win the first two games,” he said, “but we made a couple mistakes that cost us. We could have been up 2-1 [in the series] or 3-0 even if we’d been a little more solid defensively.”

After losing the first two games of the series at Denver, 4-3 and 5-3, the Kings obviously faced an uphill battle in trying to win it.

Dating to 1939, when the NHL introduced the format, teams that have lost the first two games in best-of-seven playoff series have rallied to win the series only about 13% of the time. The Kings are 1-8 in that situation, having overcome a 2-0 deficit to eliminate the Detroit Red Wings last spring.

Murray, though, urged them not to look beyond Monday night.

“We talked to our players this morning about taking the approach, we’re playing to win tonight’s hockey game,” he said before the game. “We’re not playing to win the series tonight. We need to win this game and move on from there.

“Tonight’s game stands on its own. It’s one hockey game we need to win. Let’s not be burdened by the fact we’ve got to win four to win the series.”

Encouraged by their level of commitment and ability to score in Games 1 and 2, the Kings also were concerned about their defensive breakdowns.

“The compete’s been there,” defenseman Mathieu Schneider said before the game, “but the mistakes we’ve made, it’s like guys are getting brain cramps once or twice a game, and you can’t afford that in the playoffs, especially against a team like Colorado, with all the world-class players they have.

“We have to eliminate stupid mistakes. We’re doing a lot of right things, but not enough.”

One thing they did right in Game 3 was get the puck to Palffy, who scored his third goal of the series 19 seconds into the game.

After a faceoff in the Avalanche zone, Allison raced to the puck in the right corner and poked it to Palffy, who carried it behind the net and into the left faceoff circle before lifting a shot into the upper left corner of the net.

The Kings, intent on limiting scoring chances after Games 1 and 2, held Colorado without a shot for nearly the first six minutes.

But from that point until period’s end, they were outshot, 11-2.

Larsen, a fourth-line left wing who scored two goals in 50 regular-season games, tied the score with 13:59 to play in the period, pouncing on a rebound in the slot and lifting it into the net over Potvin.

In the second period, the Kings needed only 43 seconds to score, Palffy and Allison again combining forces to make the score 2-1. A toe save by Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy on a shot by Palffy kicked out to Allison at the bottom of the left faceoff circle and Allison slapped it right back into the net.

At 8:29 of the second period, Allison gathered the puck behind the net and slipped a pass between the legs of Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote to Palffy, who slid a shot between Roy’s pads to increase the King lead to 3-1.