It’s the Power Rangers

If the Kings wanted to use Saturday night’s game against the New York Rangers as a litmus test, they failed miserably.

Even without center Eric Lindros, the Rangers gave the Kings a serious dose of offense as they skated away with a 5-4 victory in front of a standing-room only crowd of 18,420 at Staples Center, the team’s fifth home sellout of the season.

The Rangers scored on their second shot of the game, then scored three relatively soft goals to chase King goaltender Felix Potvin in the second period, and that’s all the Atlantic Division-leaders needed to extend their winning streak to three.

The Kings scored twice in the final 1:09 to make it close.

“It was exciting out there, but we just didn’t get off to as quick a start as we wanted,� said winger Adam Deadmarsh, who scored one of the Kings’ goals against New York goalie Mike Richter.

What made the Rangers’ victory so impressive is that they did it without Lindros, who was kept out of the lineup because of precautionary reasons. Lindros had left in the first period of Friday night’s victory at San Jose complaining of headaches. He was examined Saturday morning in Los Angeles and is listed as day-to-day.

“We knew exactly how the Rangers would play,� said King Coach Andy Murray, whose team dropped to 7-4-4 in December. “We just didn’t play with good defensive structure.�

New York took a 1-0 lead 3:24 into the first period when winger Jeff Toms beat Potvin from the left circle for his third goal of the season. Toms’ shot wasn’t extremely hard, but Potvin didn’t get a good look and the Kings found themselves down to the Rangers, who improved to 13-3 when they have scored first this season.

New York needed only one shot in the second period to extend its lead to 2-0.

Petr Nedved scored his 13th goal of the season when he beat Potvin high 1:24 into the period. But the Kings quickly responded with a goal of their own when Deadmarsh knocked in a loose puck for his 13th goal of the season, 39 seconds after Nedved’s score.

The Kings’ momentum didn’t last long.

New York opened up a two-goal lead again when forward Mikael Samuelsson scored off a rebound left unattended after a shot from Andreas Johansson at 2:55.

So in a space of 1:31, three goals were scored and the Kings found themselves trailing, 3-1.

Later in the period, the Kings rallied again when defenseman Aaron Miller scored with a nifty backhand from the slot to cut New York’s lead to 3-2. But again, the Rangers had an answer and they did it in style when forward Manny Malhotra scored a short-handed goal at 12:27.

That’s when Murray decided he had seen enough of Potvin and replaced him with Jamie Storr.

“I thought we needed a change,� Murray said. “All month, we’ve had everybody contribute and tonight we lost because we didn’t have everybody contribute. And that would go for every position [including goal].�

For the Rangers, who improved to 22-14-3-2, scoring hasn’t been a problem this season. They entered Saturday’s game third in the NHL in goals scored.

“Glen Sather, our general manager, wants us to play a more wide-open style like he played in his Edmonton days,� veteran winger Theo Fleury said. “Having Colorado win the Cup last year changed the mind-set of a lot of people because now teams want to have more offense and more of a wide-open game.�

With a 4-2 lead, the Rangers clinched their victory with 5:21 left in the game when Johannson scored his 11th goal of the season.

The Kings made one final comeback when Steve Heinze scored with 1:09 left and Bryan Smolinski scored with one second on the clock, but it was a case of too little, too late.