DEAD WINGS DEADMARSH DELIVERS DECIDING GOALS; KINGS TO FACE COLORADO NEXT KINGS 3, DETROIT 2.

Byline: Karen Crouse Staff Writer

With the help of one of their newest players, the Kings shed their old skin Monday and slithered into the second round of the playoffs.

The team that for eight long years has been unable to shake the word ``if'' - if Marty McSorley hadn't used a curved stick, if Bruce McNall hadn't run afoul of the law, if Wayne Gretzky hadn't been traded, if Rob Blake had been signed for the rest of his career - cleared the Staples Center air of all such ambiguities.

Adam Deadmarsh, acquired in a trade in February that sent Kings fan favorite Blake to Colorado, scored the game-tying goal midway through the third period and the game-winner on Jozef Stumpel's rebound in the fifth minute of overtime.

With the victory, the Kings completed a fanciful comeback that began after a humbling 4-0 loss in Detroit in Game 2 left the Kings contemplating their third opening-round elimination in the past four years.

They will face Colorado in the second round, starting Thursday in Denver.

The Red Wings had taken a 2-1 lead with 13 minutes, 18 seconds left in the second on Darren McCarty's shot from the left faceoff circle.

Stumpel gave the Kings a shot in the arm - and a 1-0 lead - when he fired the puck between goalie Chris Osgood's pads from the bottom of the left faceoff circle in the third minute of the first period.

The Kings were 1:29 into their first power play, which was courtesy of Igor Larionov's high-sticking of Deadmarsh. Stumpel's score was the Kings' third power-play goal in their past three chances dating back to Game 4, no small turnaround for a team that had gone 0 for 16 with a man advantage in the series before converting its final two chances in last Wednesday's ``Fantasy on Figueroa'' overtime victory.

The capacity crowd, well aware the Kings had ridden the momentum of scoring first to a victory in the previous two games, got so loud the officials said they couldn't hear their own whistles.

Kris Draper was whistled for cross-checking Kings rookie Eric Belanger in front of the Detroit net with 8:39 left in the first and 1:09 later it appeared the Kings had converted yet another extra-man chance.

Mathieu Schneider's shot from the top of the left faceoff circle hit the cross bar and skittered past Osgood at roughly the same time Detroit rookie Jiri Fischer cross-checked Luc Robitaille into the net.

The goal was waved off, the officials having discerned the puck was swept across the goal by Robitaille's skate as he was falling.

``That should have been either a goal or a penalty,'' Robitaille fumed in an interview with a television reporter as he came off the ice at the end of the period.

Once play resumed, the Kings' 1-0 lead evaporated like the steam coming out of Robitaille's ears.

Kings enforcer Stu Grimson took an utterly avoidable high-sticking penalty in the fourth minute and the Red Wings' power-play unit - the most productive of this young postseason -capitalized without even taking a shot.

Kings goaltender Felix Potvin swept the puck over the goal line with his stick in a chaotic sequence in front of the net. Pat Verbeek, the nearest Red Wing, was credited with the game-tying score.

Osgood, who easily was Detroit's best player in Game 5, was sharp again on this night. In the minutes after McCarty's goal, Osgood turned away two separate breakaways, by Ziggy Palffy and Deadmarsh.

Deadmarsh is referred to as ``The Red Wings Killer'' in Detroit in deference to his 25 points in 28 career playoff games against the Red Wings. Sure enough, on Monday he was the Season Killer for his nemesis.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Adam Deadmarsh, right, celebrates with Jozef Stumpel after scoring the tying goal in the third period Monday night.

(2) The Kings' Luc Robitaille is knocked into the net by the Red Wings' Jiri Fischer during Game 6 at Staples Center.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer