Ugly Win Looks Great to Kings : Game 2: Sandstrom’s goal with 7:40 to play beats Maple Leafs, 3-2, and evens series, but Watters deserves a save for play on Gilmour.

TORONTO —  The road to the Stanley Cup is not always dotted with textbook passing plays or spectacular breakaways.

On a night when the Kings evened the Campbell Conference finals with a 3-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tomas Sandstrom’s goal with 7:40 remaining, the lasting memory in Game 2 was a desperate defensive play.

It came in the final minute with Toronto center Doug Gilmour stationed behind the net with the puck. Anything could have happened: a wraparound or a pass in front that could glance off anyone’s skate.

What unfolded, however, was King defenseman Tim Watters flattening Gilmour and the Maple Leafs never getting a scoring chance. “Crazy things happen when it’s thrown out front,” King goaltender Kelly Hrudey said. “I don’t like those. Another guy comes up big for us--Tim Watters. It was incredible.”

Those were the kind of players who helped secure it for the Kings on Wednesday night at Maple Leaf Gardens before a sellout crowd of 15,720, tying the best-of-seven series at 1-1.

With about 15 seconds remaining, King right wing Dave Taylor cut off a pass and barely missed the empty net after goaltender Felix Potvin had been pulled for an extra attacker.

After the game started with three goals in the first 3:59, it was the guys with the gritty nicknames--Taylor is fondly called “Stitch” and Watters answers to “Muddy”--who made the difference.

Call it what you will. Winning ugly. A dirty, muddy win.

Whatever Game 2 was called, King Coach Barry Melrose was quick to embrace it.

“Oh yeah, a very gritty win,” he said. “It was a Toronto-style game we beat them at. It was a lot like our 3-1 win over Calgary at home (in Game 4 of the Smythe Division final). It was definitely an ugly win.”

Privately, the Kings were saying how poorly they played, somewhat shocked at their inability to get a sustained attack going. But playoff hockey isn’t decided by judges who give out awards for the prettiest play. The only thing that mattered is they had to be better than Toronto for three periods and avoid another third-period collapse.

“We want to play like the L.A. Kings and if Toronto can beat us, more credit to them,” Melrose said. “We want to show them how we can play.”

Wayne Gretzky, who assisted on Sandstrom’s goal, disputed the fact that the Kings are a one-dimensional run-and-gun offensive team. The Maple Leafs helped provide him with evidence as they managed only six shots on goal in the third period, sputtering the way the Kings did in Game 1 with one third-period shot.

“We get knocked for not being able to play defense, but I think tonight proves we can,” Gretzky said. “It was a good team effort, probably the best game we’ve played so far in the playoffs as a team.”

Toronto Coach Pat Burns felt the constant stream of penalties--the Kings were one for nine on the power play and the Maple Leafs were one for six--was an obvious factor in curtailing his team’s momentum.

“There wasn’t much of a flow,” Burns said. “I would say there was a lot of penalties called and we killed a lot of penalties. There just wasn’t any flow.

“We all seemed to sit back and wait for the Doug Gilmour Show to happen and too many guys were just riding the bus tonight.”

Actually, the Kings seemed to show more composure than the Maple Leafs, taking only one retaliatory penalty. Around here, the media was hyping up Game 2 as a war on ice, the second chapter of Marty McSorley vs. Gilmour. The closest it came to a rematch was in the last minute of the first period, when Gilmour appeared to butt McSorley behind the net after McSorley had punched him. A head-butt calls for a five-minute major and an automatic game misconduct. However, referee Don Koharski said there was no contact.

Later, a borderline call helped give the Kings new life in the second period when they seemed to be stalling, trailing, 2-1. Left wing Dave Andreychuk was called for interfering with Hrudey behind the net at 12:11.

“The goalie was out of the net and I was trying to take the puck off him,” Andreychuk said. “I’m getting out of his way. I’m not trying to run him over. If I’m trying to run him over, I would have hit him.

“We took some penalties we shouldn’t have taken and that’s one of them. It was a marginal call at best.”

But 49 seconds later, the Kings tied it with their only power-play goal of the night when Tony Granato took a pass from Corey Millen, who was at the boards, and quickly spun and jammed it by Potvin.

That set the stage for the third period and Sandstrom’s game-winner from the top of the left circle, a 30-footer that beat Potvin on the glove side.

The only quality chance the Maple Leafs had to tie it was a shot by Mark Osborne that went wide with 1:25 remaining.

Burns was left to assess the state of the series--which heads to Los Angeles for Game 3 on Friday night at the Forum.

“We haven’t won a second game of a playoff series all year,” he said. “We know we have to go down there and work hard.

“We have given them some life.”