KINGS' GOALS BASED ON GOAL.

Byline: MATT McHALE NHL 

The Kings took advantage of slumps by Dallas and the Mighty Ducks to stay atop the Pacific Division for most of the past three months.

How much longer will it last?

Now the Stars are playing well and Marty Turco has regained the form that made him a record-setting goaltender last season.

For now, San Jose is riding a rejuvenated Evgeni Nabokov to the top of the Pacific. After a slow start, he beat the Ducks three times during a recent 12-day stretch and shut out the Kings on Friday night.

The Calgary Flames are 13-2-2 in their past 17 games since Miikka Kiprusoff was acquired from the Sharks.

If you don't notice a trend, you should.

Goaltending, not the absence of Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh, is the Kings' biggest concern. It will decide whether they make the playoffs.

Roman Cechmanek was erratic when he was healthy, and now that he's hurt the burden has fallen to second-year player Cristobal Huet, who has appeared in at least part of the club's past 10 games.

During all but two months of the five-year Andy Murray era, goaltending has been a problem. After joining the team in February 2001, Felix Potvin took the Kings to within a game of the Western Conference finals. Six months later, he was back to being the guy who got tossed by Toronto, the New York Islanders and Vancouver.

Stephane Fiset? Jamie Storr? They represented the dark ages before Potvin arrived. Cechmanek? He had great numbers in Philadelphia until playoff time.

Even before injuring his left hip Dec. 11 in Nashville, Cechmanek was an enigma. He had four shutouts and needed another to become the quickest player in NHL history to reach 25. His 1.96 goals-against average was impressive.

But it all was misleading.

Take his career record against New Jersey, his chief rival during three seasons in Philadelphia. He had a stellar 2.11 goals-against average and three shutouts. But he was 5-6-3.

It is no coincidence the league's top teams have top goaltenders. In the East, the Devils are among the best by allowing just 56 goals all season. The Detroit Red Wings lead the West even though Dominik Hasek has been injured and somewhat shaky because Curtis Joseph has taken over and is 5-0-2 since returning from the minors.

Joseph was awful in the playoffs, losing to the Ducks in four games. Anaheim's J.S. Giguere took an overachieving team to the Stanley Cup Finals with six weeks of amazing goaltending.

The Kings are locked into Cechmanek for two more years and nearly $7 million. They can't deny that he just might keep them out of the playoffs for a second consecutive season.

It might seem preposterous to think the Kings won't reach the postseason since they have been in first most of the season. But the Sharks, who entered Monday's game tied with 40 points, are seventh in the West.

Strong goaltending breeds confidence down the stretch. So far, the Kings have been staying afloat with that confidence.

Take the Stars and Turco. He held out of training camp in search of a big payday. The two months it took to find his game nearly cost coach Dave Tippett his job.

But suddenly he has not allowed more than one goal in his past seven games. The team is 6-1-1 in its past eight.

The Stars miss captain Derian Hatcher, who left for free agency and the Red Wings. And Mike Modano, the new captain, has had an awful season.

But the Stars began to jell when Turco got back his game.

There are striking similarities between the Stars and Sharks. Last year, Nabokov missed all of camp and an early chunk of the season with a holdout. Only when he returned, the Sharks stayed lousy.

It wasn't until two months into this season that Nabokov found his game. The Kings and Sharks could decide a playoff spot when they face each other four times in the final three weeks of the season.

The biggest goaltending-related jump has come in Calgary, where the Flames have taken off since acquiring Kiprusoff from the Sharks.

San Jose's coach at the beginning of last season was Darryl Sutter. Nabokov's slump cost Sutter his job, but he quickly was snatched up last December by the Flames, who were 10-18-5-5 at the time. The possibility of missing the playoffs for the seventh consecutive year seemed a lock.

The Flames didn't reach the postseason, but they are 37-28-10-4 since Sutter took over.

Sutter, who also serves as general manager, knew Kiprusoff was languishing in the San Jose system and thought he was the perfect fit for the Flames.

Despite losing his last game, Kiprusoff is atop the NHL with a 1.48 GAA and .942 save percentage to go with a 10-3-1 record. One loss was in overtime, which does not show up in the team's loss column.

It is not easy to pick the next goaltender. Should the Kings have waited and tried to acquire Joseph last summer when Hasek returned to the Wings?

Cujo is making $8 million this year, far too rich for the Kings.

Should they have passed on Cechmanek and gone with free-agent goaltender Jeff Hackett, who now has Philadelphia ahead of New Jersey in the Atlantic Division?

Hackett came into this season 156-234-50. Cechmanek looked like he was headed to the Hall of Fame.

The Kings could have used one of their three first-round picks last June to secure a solid goaltender. Could they have acquired Sean Burke from Phoenix?

Burke might have been the league's best player two years ago, but he has appeared in just 20 postseason games since 1988 and not won a series.

It's all a game of woulda, coulda, shoulda.

But come playoff time, goaltending will define the Kings' season.

Matt McHale, [phone]

matt.mchale(at)dailynews.com

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- Matt McHale

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