STANLEY CUP FINALS : Carbonneau Had Plan and Then Stuck to It : Canadiens: Center spotted McSorley’s illegal stick in Game 1 and shut down Gretzky in Game 2.

Not much gets by Guy Carbonneau. Not many opposing centers get past him, either.

And thanks to his keen eyesight and vigorous defensive play, the Montreal Canadiens are tied with the Kings instead of facing a 2-0 deficit tonight as the Stanley Cup finals shift to the westernmost of the two Forums.

Carbonneau, Montreal’s captain and one of only two players left from the 1986 Cup-winning team, made a pair of shrewd observations in Tuesday’s series opener that he felt obliged to share with Coach Jacques Demers.

The first was to notice excessive, and illegal, curving on the blades of Marty McSorley’s and Luc Robitaille’s sticks, information he mentally filed for use when the Canadiens could best profit from a penalty against the Kings.

“When we were losing, 3-1, near the end of the first game, it didn’t do us any good to try it,” Carbonneau said.

Less happily, he noticed that Demers wasn’t always sending him out to check Wayne Gretzky’s line. For Carbonneau, three times a winner of the Selke Trophy as the NHL’s top defensive player in his 11 seasons, that hurt his pride. He was also puzzled that Demers more often leaned on Kirk Muller. Carbonneau considers that a waste of Muller’s offensive skills.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Kirk. He’s a great player offensively and defensively, but when a guy like Gretzky is out there, that takes away from your offense to have Kirk’s line checking him,” said Carbonneau, who centered for Benoit Brunet and Denis Savard in Game 1 and for Brunet and Ed Ronan in Game 2. “Our line is a good line defensively. We don’t have to change anything in our game to play against them, while Kirk’s line has to change and it takes away from our offense when it has to change.”

Muller, who had 37 goals and 57 assists this season, agreed.

“Carbo’s bread and butter has been doing that his whole career,” he said. “He’s one of the best at it, if not the best.

“If he can do that against Wayne, maybe that will give our other lines a chance to use our assets.”

Added Carbonneau: “I like to respond to the challenge. I think I’ve been pretty good at it. It’s natural for me to do that. I’ve been 11 years in the league and I don’t think Gretzky can intimidate me.”

Carbonneau decided to ask Demers for the assignment before Thursday’s game, but Demers read his mind.

“He must have been thinking about it before me, because I went into his office and before I could say anything he said, ‘I want to try you against Gretzky,’ ” Carbonneau said.

The move was so successful, Gretzky was limited to one shot and was held without a point for the only third time in 21 playoff games. The second collaboration between Carbonneau and Demers--over McSorley’s illegal stick--was equally successful.

“When the Kings had a two-man advantage at the start of the third period, I reminded Jacques of a way he would only be down one man. Jacques opted to wait,” Carbonneau said. “Then, later in the game, I noticed that Robitaille had changed his stick (to get one with a legal blade). With a score of 2-1 for the Kings, I relayed the information about Robitaille to Jacques in reminding him again that McSorley was still using an illegal stick. It was finally our coach who made the decision.

“When a team is coming from a 1-0 deficit in a series and it can only score one goal in the second match, it’s absolutely necessary to take chances. That’s what Jacques did with McSorley.”

It paid off in the power play that enabled Montreal to tie the score, a prelude to Eric Desjardin’s overtime winner.

“When they scored their second goal, the first thing we said on the bench was, ‘Let’s try to get it into overtime,’ ” Carbonneau said. “At least if we get it to overtime, it means we tied the game, and also we have a good record in overtime (8-1). We took a chance at the end and it paid off.”

Carbonneau knows the Kings aren’t likely to give the Canadiens another illegal stick to challenge, so he’s putting his faith in again playing sound defense and being opportunistic on offense.

“They gave us a good scare,” Carbonneau said. “We just have got to keep going, try to hit the net and try to hit the middle of the net (instead of aiming at the corners).

“We’d like to take a lead of two, three goals every game, but it’s not going to happen. Every foot that you win out there, you’ve got to be happy. I think we picked up our game and we played a lot better defensively.”