Robitaille, Kings Oust Wings

The Los Angeles Kings feel they are fighting for their playoff lives, and a rejuvenated Luc Robitaille is leading the charge.

Robitaille's spectacular power-play goal in overtime lifted the Kings to a 3-2 victory over Detroit on Wednesday night, snapping the Red Wings' unbeaten streak at seven games.

"We looked at the standings before," said Robitaille, who is having one of his best seasons in recent years. "With all the bad games we've played, we're only five games out of the playoffs."

Third-period goals 29 seconds apart by Donald Audette and Rob Blake tied the game 2-2. Brendan Shanahan and Sergei Fedorov scored for the Red Wings, who went into the game on a 6-0-1 streak.

"Obviously, we didn't play well enough to win this game," Detroit forward Martin Lapointe said. "We were leading 2-0. We could have buried them, but we didn't. We have to take the blame for that."

Igor Larionov was off for holding Robitaille when Robitaille, who leads the Kings with 60 points, stumbled and fell on his back while trying to control the puck in the right circle. But he somehow got his stick on the puck and, still on his back, flipped it backward and past goaltender Chris Osgood for his 31st goal at 1:57 of overtime.

"I didn't have much time to think," said Robitaille, who has struggled since scoring 24 goals with the New York Rangers in 1997. "I just wanted to put the puck back on the net. Most of the time when that happens, the goaltender is out of position, too. That's what happened.

"It was really exciting."

His winner capped a furious comeback for the Kings, who outshot Detroit 39-26.

Ian Laperriere picked up a giveaway by Larry Murphy and slipped it to Audette, who skated in alone to beat Osgood for his 11th goal at 7:06 of the third. Blake grabbed another loose puck and scored an unassisted goal, his fifth, at 7:35.

"It wasn't a real strong game on our part," Murphy said. "We gave them too many opportunities."

Shanahan had a bit of luck while giving Detroit a 1-0 lead with his 22nd goal with 5:45 left in the first period. Steve Yzerman started the play with what appeared to be a harmless shot from the left circle. But when the Kings' Jozef Stumpel reached out for the puck, he deflected it onto the stick of Shanahan at the right side. A flick of the wrist and it was in the net.

Fedorov, in the slot, took a pass from Doug Brown and snapped it past goaltender Stephane Fiset for his 17th goal and a 2-0 lead at 2:31 of the second period.

Osgood had made a big save on Robitaille about two minutes before Audette scored early in the third. He came up big on Robitaille again with 40.9 seconds left in the third period, after another giveaway by Murphy.

"This is something we can't continue to do," said Murphy, who was on the ice for the first two Los Angeles goals.

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