Kings Rally, Then See Oilers Get Even, 6-6

The Kings have looked like two different teams this week against the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers beat the Kings, 8-4, at the Forum Tuesday night, scoring five goals in the third period.

However, Thursday night, the Kings came back from a 4-0 second-period deficit and played the Oilers to a 6-6 tie in overtime before 17,048 fans at the Northlands Coliseum.

The Kings thought they deserved to beat the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. In fact, they thought they had beaten them.

They took a 6-5 lead on a goal by Dave (Tiger) Williams, who scored on a backhand shot off a pass from Dave Taylor with 2:58 left in the third period.

“I thought I had the game-winner. I think all of us did,” Williams said. “But they battled back and got a pretty lucky goal.”

The Oilers pulled goalie Andy Moog for an extra skater with 47 seconds left. Mark Napier came off the bench and, with 41 seconds left, scored the tying goal off a nice pass by Wayne Gretzky, who had five assists.

King defenseman Craig Redmond and left wing Phil Sykes went down to try to block the shot, but Napier scored, anyway, as King goalie Darren Eliot came out of the net to try to block the shot.

“It was mainly instinct,” Napier said. “I saw the defensemen go down and I kept going wide. I just threw it at the net. I won’t say it was a shot. It was a pass that happened to go in.”

Asked what happened on the goal, Eliot said: “It looked like a set play. They threw it to the open side of the net, and Napier took it all the way in. I came out to try to cut off his angle. I don’t know how much he had to shoot at, but it was a pretty bad angle.”

King Coach Pat Quinn was upset with Redmond and Sykes for trying to block the shot: “We had two guys who went the Zamboni route and lay down,” he said. “That’s the worst play in the game.”

The Kings, who trailed by four goals early in the second period, scored five consecutive goals to take a 5-4 lead.

“It was going to be a 15-0 game if we had kept playing like we played in the first period,” Quinn said.

Redmond gave the Kings the lead when he scored on a power play at 5:01 of the third period. It was only the sixth power-play goal that the Oilers have given up in 72 chances at home this season.

But the Oilers tied it at 5-5 with 7:23 left in the third period when right wing Jari Kurri scored on a 20-foot slap shot from the left circle off a pass from defenseman Paul Coffey.

“We got sloppy,” Edmonton Coach Glen Sather said. “I’m unhappy about blowing a four-goal lead, but I’m happy that we at least got a tie out it.”

The Oilers (18-4-4) are 7-0-3 in that span. The Kings, who opened a five-game trip in the Great White North, are 5-16-4 and winless in their last six games.

In the first period, the Kings were outshot, 17-4, and outscored, 3-0.

“We had a plan to defense them,” Williams said. “I’m not going to say what it was because it was a (bleep) plan.”

Left wing Glenn Anderson, who had gone six games without scoring, led the Oilers with two first-period goals, and Gretzky had two assists as he extended his scoring streak to 16 games.

Gretzky set up Anderson’s second goal with a behind-the-back pass to Kurri, who passed across the slot to Anderson.

Napier also scored a first-period goal for the Oilers, going around King defenseman Rick LaPointe to beat Eliot.

Oiler defenseman Paul Coffey scored a shorthanded goal at 1:42 of the second period after a turnover by King center Bernie Nicholls.

It looked as if the Oilers were on their way to a rout, but the Kings rallied.

The Kings scored two goals in 17 seconds in the second period to close their deficit to 4-2. Taylor scored his 10th goal of the season off a pass from Williams at 6:14, and left wing Brian MacLellan scored his first goal in 15 games on a rebound of a shot by right wing Bryan Erickson at 6:31.

Defenseman Garry Galley scored his eighth goal of the season on a 15-foot wrist shot through Moog’s legs with 8:42 left in the second period to close the score to 4-3.

Sykes tied it with three minutes left in the second period when he scored an unassisted, shorthanded goal after stealing the puck from Kurri. It was the Kings’ first shorthanded goal this season and the sixth shorthanded goal the Oilers have given up.

King Notes The Kings acquired center Len Hachborn, 24, who has been playing for the AHL’s Hershey Bears, from the Philadelphia Flyers for future considerations. Last season, Hachborn had 5 goals and 17 assists in 40 games for the Flyers. . . . .

Mark Messier of the Oilers missed Thursday night’s game with a badly bruised left foot. Messier was injured in the first period of Tuesday night’s game when he blocked a shot by Bernie Nicholls. Messier played the rest of the game but was limping badly Wednesday. He is expected to be out for 7-10 days. Messier is the sixth leading scorer in the NHL with 16 goals and 18 assists. . . . King defenseman Mark Hardy, who hasn’t played a game this season because of a wrist injury, got 4,430 votes in the All-Star balloting. . . . Four Oilers are the top vote-getters for the Campbell Conference team: Wayne Gretzky (85,797), defenseman Paul Coffey (95,686), goalie Grant Fuhr (50,065) and right wing Jari Kurri. . . . The Kings open a two-game seres against the Jets at Winnipeg Saturday night.