ADVANTAGE AVALANCHE MISTAKES, BAD LUCK FOIL KINGS COLORADO 4, KINGS 3.

Byline: Karen Crouse Staff Writer

If ifs and buts were rebounds and pucks, the upset-minded Kings on Monday would have been celebrating their third straight win over Colorado.

As it is, the Kings are staring at a 2-1 deficit in their best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series against the Avalanche after losing a second consecutive game that was sitting there for them like a loose puck in the crease.

Defenseman Jon Klemm's goal with 9 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third period was the difference in Colorado's 4-3 win over the Kings. It took the edge off the Kings' skates, coming as it did 33 seconds after Glen Murray's power-play goal had brought the Kings to within 3-2.

The excitement left Staples Center like a reverse draft after Klemm's score. Ziggy Palffy stopped the 18,478 fans in their exit tracks with a goal with 40 seconds left. That's as close as the Kings would get on a night when Patrick Roy made 22 saves every which way to lead the Avalanche to its first-ever victory at Staples Center.

``We were almost there,'' said Luc Robitaille, who rebounded beautifully from a baleful showing in Game 2, scoring the Kings' first goal and contributing the second assist on Murray's score. ``We took too many penalties early, but we still had a shot at the end.''

Four minor penalties took the Kings out of their rhythm in the first period. An unfortunate bounce that begat a Colorado score in the second typified the Kings' luck on a night when they finally were able to force Roy to make a few highlight-reel saves.

Midway through the second, Kings defenseman Mattias Norstrom lost the puck along the boards and it skittered off the skate of a linesman and onto the stick of Milan Hejduk. Felix Potvin made the first save and the second, but the third shot was a charm for Peter Forsberg.

Hejduk would score on a feed by Forsberg during an odd-man rush in the ninth minute of the third to extend the Avalanche's lead to 3-1. Forsberg stepped in to fill the void created when Joe Sakic was lost for the night early in the first because of a shoulder injury.

Rob Blake, as beloved as anybody who has worn the captain's ``C'' when he was a King, was booed repeatedly in his return to Staples Center. Blake answered the arctic welcome with a cheap shot in the fifth minute of the first.

Blake's shot from beyond the blue line that inexplicably beat goaltender Felix Potvin was a slap to the Kings fans who booed him lustily every time the puck touched his stick.

Is there any doubt that the melting pot that is Southern California is a parochial place when its sports fans will cheer Gary Sheffield and boo Blake?

Anyway, there was no denying Blake's goal was soft as a pillow. Potvin could have been expected to stop it in his sleep the way he has been playing. He had stopped 92.6 percent of the Colorado shots he faced to that point, including rebounds of the rebounds of screened first shots.

Blake's shot was the 69th Potvin had faced in the series. Roy, by contrast, had seen only 45 shots in the same span. He was like a left fielder watching the game unfold a good distance in front of him until late in the first, when Blake and Adam Foote took penalties within six seconds of each other to engage Roy.

The Kings had converted only one of their first nine power plays in the series, but a two-man advantage proved too good to mess up. Mathieu Schneider sent the puck from the point to Ziggy Palffy, who was parked to the left of Roy.

Palffy froze Roy, then tapped the puck across the crease to Robitaille. The 15th-year veteran poked it past Roy, who couldn't shift fast enough to make the stop, and the game was tied at 1.

Robitaille had some rebounding to do after a subpar performance on Saturday landed him in coach Andy Murray's doghouse.

Murray benched Robitaille late in the Kings' 2-0 loss in Game 2 because he didn't think the winger was battling hard enough. Robitaille got the message, loud and clear; he was a vulture buzzing around Roy all night.

In the third minute of the third, when the Kings were on another power play, Robitaille lifted a shot from deep in the slot that Roy shrugged off with his right shoulder.

``It is an interesting series,'' Andy Murray said. ``The second game could have gone either way and I thought that we deserved to win the game tonight.''

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Photo:

(color) Ziggy Palffy, left, and the Kings were caught off balance against Dan Hinote and Colorado most of the night.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer