Kings Deliver a Perfect Reply

PHILADELPHIA — In the early morning hours Thursday, the letters were delivered to each hotel room, there to be picked up by the Kings with their newspapers.

Usually, the road-game missives are game plans, with the opposition’s lineup, tendencies and other scouting tidbits. This time the message was curt, to the point and had little to do with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Put up or shut up, the letters said, and Thursday night the Kings put up a goal by Jozef Stumpel at 1:20 of overtime in a 3-2 victory that ended a four-game winless streak at 0-3-1-1.

It also gave them 83 points, solidified their hold on fifth place in the Western Conference and gave them a seven-point playoff cushion over the ninth-place Mighty Ducks with eight games to play.

“Basically, [the letter] said, ‘make it happen on the ice,’ ” said a King player, who didn’t wish to be identified.

The Kings made it happen three times in winning only their second game all season in which they were behind after two periods.

“We were pretty confident [going out for the third period, down, 1-0] because we knew we had played well,” said goalie Stephane Fiset, who stopped 22 shots in his first start since suffering a groin injury on March 4. “We knew we had a chance to win.”

That chance was heightened by Luc Robitaille’s first goal in 10 games, and the Kings’ first power-play goal in five. It came 9:36 into the third on a one-timer set up by a Stumpel pass and tied it, 1-1.

The tie lasted only 57 seconds, until Gino Odjick’s goal, scored with the Kings’ Bob Corkum on his back and an announced 19,695 vocally spurring him on.

“They were playing football out there,” Odjick complained about the Kings. “They got away with it, so good for them.”

Added Flyer center Kent Manderville: “Surprising for a Western Conference team, they played a tight-checking game. Usually they are a little more free wheeling. There was a lot of clutching and grabbing.”

And slashing by Philadelphia’s Daymond Langkow, whose stick came down on Nelson Emerson’s right index finger, breaking it 48 seconds into the third period.

The blow set up Craig Johnson to be a hero.

Usually a checking winger, Johnson found himself replacing Emerson on a line with Stumpel. Johnson’s pass goalward was tipped through a scrum by Stumpel and dribbled into the net to tie the game, 2-2, at 17:45.

With 2:15 to kill to maintain the tie and guarantee the Kings a point in their first game of a three-game trip, a breakdown in the neutral zone created duress for Fiset, who found himself facing Mark Recchi and Mark Greig, with help only from Mattias Norstrom.

“I was giving him ‘five-hole,’ ” said Fiset, meaning that he was protecting everything but the space between his pads. “Matty Norstrom played that two-on-one really well. He stayed with his man [Greig] on the other side, so I knew I had Recchi for myself. I just had to come up with the big save.”

That Fiset did, plucking Recchi’s shot out of the air with his glove to set up the overtime.

And set up things for Stumpel.

“To score the tying goal and then the game-winner says something about his character,” said Johnson, who went through his own character check in the overtime, playing in a rare four-on-four.

Johnson shot and missed, shot and missed and found the puck back on his stick to send to Stumpel, who was alone, 20 or so feet in front of the net.

“It didn’t look like they were covering the slot,” Stumpel said.

Meanwhile, the Kings’ reaction to their early morning mail was positive.

“They’ve got to make a decision,” said Coach Andy Murray, the letter’s author. “We’ve got a lot of players whose reputations are on the line. They’ve got to show that they can perform in crucial games.”