COLORADO TAKES GAME TO ANOTHER ELEVATION KINGS HAVE AN UPHILL CLIMB AGAINST AVS.

Byline: Karen Crouse Staff Writer

DENVER - The Kings have as much game as Phil Mickelson. That's great, except their next match-play opponent is the NHL's version of Tiger Woods.

If the 2000-2001 edition of the Colorado Avalanche has a weakness, no team has been able to exploit it. Colorado won the Presidents' Trophy, which goes to the team that posts the best regular-season record, in an avalanche. Colorado's 118 points was seven points better than runners-up New Jersey and Detroit (and 26 points better than the Kings, who were seventh in the West).

A lot of people were surprised to see the Kings advance past the first round. The general feeling everywhere but inside their dressing room is anything the Kings do from here on out is a spring snowfall. The Avalanche season will be written off as an abject failure if it doesn't win the Stanley Cup.

``In L.A., we hoped to win,'' Rob Blake said, summing up the difference in the climate in the two cities. ``Here, we expect it.''

There's a reason the expectations are mile-high in Denver. To borrow a catch phrase from the PGA Tour, these guys are good!

Consider team speed. The Kings are the carpool lane on the freeway; they can get from here to there pretty quickly. The Avalanche? It's the Autobahn; if Colorado skated any faster, it'd be ticketed.

The Kings have winger Ziggy Palffy, who led the league in goals for a good while this season. The Avalanche has a future wing of the Hall of Fame in goaltender Patrick Roy, forwards Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg and defenseman Ray Bourque.

The Kings have Aaron Miller shoring up their defense. The Avalanche blue line is so deep it couldn't make room for Miller. He and Adam Deadmarsh became Kings on Feb. 21 in a trade that sent defenseman Blake and forward Steve Reinprecht to Colorado.

Blake sat out eight games with a sprained right knee but heralded his return with a four-point performance in Colorado's playoff opener against Vancouver. Reinprecht is centering the Avalanche's third line and Miller and Deadmarsh have sent the Kings' grit quotient soaring.

Miller has an insider's knowledge of how to beat Colorado. ``We have to outwork them because we aren't going to outskill them,'' he said.

Goodness knows the Kings aren't afraid of elbow grease. They showed how diligent they can be in coming back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat Detroit in six games in their first-round series (the Avalanche dispatched Vancouver in four games).

Like Mickelson, the Kings are a worthy adversary when they play smart and don't let their aggressiveness override their discipline. They secured a 2-2 split in their season series with the Avalanche with a 4-0 win at Staples Center last month.

Second-year coach Andy Murray said that game, on March 31, had all the feel of a playoff contest for the Kings, who at that point were fighting for their postseason lives.

Yes, and Mickelson thought beating Woods at the Tour Championship in Atlanta was a ``major'' victory until Woods stared him down earlier this month at Augusta.

The Kings have shown they can skate with Colorado, no small thing. The question to be answered, beginning tonight at the Pepsi Center, is: Can they beat the Avalanche when the stakes are raised a mile?

KINGS vs. COLORADO

GAME 1: Today at 7 p.m.; TV: FSN2

SERIES MATCHUP

By Karen Crouse

Staff Writer

OFFENSE

KINGS

Luc Robitaille and Ziggy Palffy both recorded four-point games against Colorado during the regular season. Jozef Stumpel is on a roll. He delivered a goal and two assists in Monday's series clincher against Detroit and helped deliver his first child, a daughter, in L.A. on Wednesday. He is expected to return to Denver in time for Game 1.

AVALANCHE

What Adam Deadmarsh is to the Red Wings, the Kings are to Peter Forsberg. The wonderfully talented, tough center has only three goals in 25 career games against the Kings. Joe Sakic, the Hart Trophy runner-up, would have run away with the award if he could have played the Kings more often; he had three goals and eight points in the four regular-season games.

EDGE: AVALANCHE

DEFENSE

KINGS

Aaron Miller, a little-used cog in Colorado's defense, has become a major contributor on the Kings' blue line. He had 17 hits and 12 blocked shots in the six games against Detroit. Jaroslav Modry played well in place of injured Ludomir Visnovsky, but Visnovsky is healthy enough to return to the lineup.

AVALANCHE

Ray Bourque, Rob Blake and Adam Foote lead the defense. That's not a blue line, it's blueblood.

EDGE: AVALANCHE

GOALTENDING

KINGS

Felix Potvin has made 29 consecutive starts. He has a save percentage of .898 in the playoffs. Coach Andy Murray said Potvin hasn't been called on to be spectacular so far and ``that's the way we like it.'' Potvin made a memorable save on Kris Draper's bid to extend Detroit's lead to 3-1 in Game 6 that started the Kings on their comeback.

AVALANCHE

Patrick Roy's save percentage in the playoffs is .898, which is nothing to write the Hall of Fame about. As unfathomable as it seems to any Kings fan who remembers Roy's play for Montreal against L.A. in the 1993 Finals, he is the Avalanche's weakest link.

EDGE: KINGS

POWER PLAY

KINGS

They converted three of their last four chances after remembering that rebound goals happen when you crash the net.

AVALANCHE

Where there's Bourque, Blake, Sakic and Forsberg, there's ample incentive for the opposition to steer clear of the penalty box. Colorado is so potent on the power play, its 26.3 percent conversion rate against Vancouver is almost disappointing.

EDGE: AVALANCHE

PENALTY KILLING

KINGS

In the first round against Detroit the Kings killed off 66.7 percent of their penalties, tying them with Philadelphia for worst in the postseason.

AVALANCHE

They were 17th in the league during the regular season and did nothing to distinguish themselves in the first round against Vancouver, killing off 75 percent.

EDGE: EVEN

TOUGH GUYS

KINGS

Stu Grimson crossed the line between enforcing and enfeebling the Kings with a couple of stupid penalties against the Red Wings. He has to play smarter against the Avalanche or Colorado's power play will bury the Kings.

AVALANCHE

Dave Reid will return to the lineup in place of Scott Parker. Reid did not play at all in the Vancouver series, so his fists are fresh.

EDGE: AVALANCHE

COACHING

KINGS

Andy Murray matched coaching legend Scotty Bowman move for move in the first round. Because he is the master of details, we're sure Murray will remind the Kings early and often that the Avalanche is 0-4 at the Staples Center and 3-10-2 in L.A. since moving from Quebec.

AVALANCHE

If Colorado's season ends with anything short of a victory lap, Bob Hartley could become the next Jerry Green, a guy who guided his team into the postseason and lost his job, anyway.

EDGE: KINGS

PREDICTION: Avalanche in five.

CAPTION(S):

2 boxes

Box:

(1) SERIES MATCHUP (see text)

(2) AT A GLANCE: WESTERN SEMIFINALS