CALL IT THE PHENOMENON ON FIGUEROA KINGS SCORE 4 GOALS IN LESS THAN 9 MINUTES TO WIN IN OT.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

The internal demons that haunted the Kings last week in Detroit arrived in Los Angeles on Wednesday night and played havoc for the first two periods, but a brilliant six-minute rally raised the spirits in Staples Center considerably.

Those spirits were brought to the brink of euphoria in overtime, as Eric Belanger scored 2:36 in the extra period to give the Kings a 4-3 victory over the Detroit Red Wings and tie the series at two games apiece in front of 18,478.

The Kings overcame a slumbering group of penalty killers, a mostly powerless power-play unit and poor defensive play in their own zone with three goals in just more than three minutes late in the third period, and took the Red Wings to overtime with the score tied 3-3.

Scott Thomas, Jozef Stumpel and Brian Smolinski all scored in the final four minutes, Smolinski with 40 seconds to play and the Kings' net empty. The Kings, down 2-1 in the series, were trying to avoid almost-certain playoff death. Only 16 times in 161 previous NHL playoff series has a team trailing three games to one rallied to win the series, although it did happen in last year's Eastern Conference finals, when New Jersey beat Philadelphia.

For all that they did wrong early Wednesday, the Kings did manage to play with an up-tempo, aggressive style for much of the game, but Osgood thwarted almost every scoring chance until late in the game.

It's no coincidence that when the Red Wings were at their best in Game 4, so was Osgood. As Detroit scored two power-play goals in the second period to open a 3-0 lead, and Osgood thwarted several attempts by the Kings to get back in the game by sprawling all over the goal crease to knock the puck away.

Osgood seemed on track for his second shutout of the series. Heheld tough in the third period until the Kings seemed to feel the desperation of the series slipping away.

Stumpel's goal just crossed the goal line with 2:30 to play and held up on a review, and the Kings pulled goalkeeper Felix Potvin Potvin couldn't match Osgood's excellence, but shouldn't shoulder a great share of the blame, either, because he was never really beaten by a clean shot.

Pat Verbeek scored the first period's only goal when he flipped the puck in front behind the net off the back of Potvin's pads. Former Kings castoff Steve Duchesne scored on a 5-on-3 advantage when he took the puck straight off the face-off and beat a surprised Potvin low and to his right.

Vyacheslav Kozlov was credited with the third goal, when his pass, intended for Martin Lapointe in front of the net, deflected off Kings defenseman Aaron Miller and into the net. All three were power-play goals.

The Kings finally ended an ominous streak by scoring on their sixth power-play attempt when Scott Thomas scored with six minutes left in the game. They had not scored in the playoffs with the man advantage in 16 attempts in this series, and 50 attempts dating back three years to a first-round series against St. Louis.

The Kings started the game with the same aggressive style that led to the Game 3 victory, but trouble spots were evident early, particularly by turnovers in their own defensive zone.

Once the Kings managed to get the puck into the Detroit zone, however, they put good pressure on Osgood in the game's opening minutes.

Three minutes into the game, Osgood slid across the crease to make the save on an Belanger shot, the first of three strong chances for the Kings in the first five minutes. With Jozef Stumpel and Verbeek already in the penalty box on coincidental roughing penalties, the Kings Detroit took the early momentum on a scramble in front of the net with six minutes left in the period. Potvin deflected away Nicklas Lidstrom's shot from the point, and as played crowded the crease, Verbeek picked up the puck just behind the net and put it in the net off of the pads of a prone Potvin for a 1-0 lead.

As has become typical for the Kings in this series, the tone of the game changed significantly once the Red Wings took the lead, and it didn't help that defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky left the game with an arm injury midway through the period and did not return.

The Kings went on the power play less than a minute after Verbeek scored, but looked lost for much of the two minutes. The only good scoring chance came on a scramble in front of the net, when eight players piled up in front of Osgood, but the Red Wings were able to clear the puck out.

The Kings' downfall came less than two minutes into the second period. Miller took a high-sticking penalty, and then 47 seconds later, Potvin was called for roughing when he got tangled with Verbeek in front of the net.

Sergei Fedorov won the face-off deep in the Kings' zone, and the puck bounced to Duchesne, who one-timed into the narrow space between the goal post and Potvin's right pad. Kozlov's goal came 90 seconds later.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 2 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Red Wings' Jiri Fischer, left, puts the hit on the Kings' Ian Laperriere during Wednesday's game.

(2) The Kings' Glen Murray, center, has a hard time getting past the Red Wings' Nicklas Lidstrom, left, and Todd Gill.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

Box: (1) EASTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF GLANCE

(2) WESTERN CONFERENCE PLAYOFF GLANCE