Oilers Meet the Challenge From Revitalized Kings

The Edmonton Oilers, usually referred to as the Stanley Cup champions Oilers, were at the Forum Tuesday night to play the Kings, who used to be referred to as the lowly Kings or the struggling Kings, and found themselves in a tremendous game.

Ever since the Aug. 9 trade that mixed and rematched the rosters of these teams, there has been nothing foregone about the conclusions of King games.

But the Stanley Cup champion Oilers remain the better team, at least on this night, beating the revitalized Kings, 5-4, before a sellout crowd of 16,005.

Oiler right winger Craig Simpson scored the goal that wrapped it up with less than 2 minutes to play. The assist went to Jimmy Carson, the top goal-scorer for the Kings last season who was making his first appearance at the Forum since he was traded.

Carson went to Edmonton as a part of the deal for Wayne Gretzky that has made for a couple of interesting contests.

Carson’s return to the Forum didn’t rival Gretzky’s return to the Northlands Coliseum last week. As Carson said: “That was a zoo, all the media and TV trucks and everything. That was like Prince Charles was coming to town or something.”

But in the absence of all the hoopla, Carson said, there was “a good hockey game.”

It was a 1-1 game through the first two periods, and then it opened up. Seven goals in the third period.

King captain Dave Taylor scored the Kings’ final goal as the final second ticked off the clock, wrapping up a high-scoring third period.

Carson gave the Oilers the 2-1 lead at 2:04 of the third period, shooting from his knees and lifting the puck past Glenn Healy’s glove. But King left winger John Tonelli evened the score by skating straight in on Grant Fuhr to score the goal at 3:59.

Healy started in goal for the Kings again. Rollie Melanson hasn’t been seen since being bombed at Calgary last week. (King Coach Robbie Ftorek said that Melanson still isn’t 100% after hurting his knee in the first game.) Healy got more help than usual from his teammates, who did a good job of keeping the puck in the other end. Healy faced just 24 shots compared with the 38 shots that flew at Fuhr.

According to Oiler Coach Glen Sather, Fuhr played his best game of the season to hold the Kings to 4 goals.

Carson said: “It was more important for us to beat the Kings than for the Kings to beat us in this game, because if we lost, everyone would start analyzing the trade and wondering what happened to the mighty Oilers.”

The answer would be that they had lost the Great Gretzky.

Gretzky, as in the first game against the Oilers, still has not scored against his former teammates. But he did have 2 assists.

The Kings had a 2-player advantage when Steve Duchesne picked up the puck that had ricocheted off the boards on a shot by Gretzky, and put it past Fuhr at 6:12 of the third period, giving the Kings the 3-2 lead.

Oiler star Jari Kurri had been assessed a hooking penalty at 4:52 and Kevin Lowe got a 5-minute penalty for high sticking and an automatic game misconduct when he caught Mike Krushelnyski around the neck with his stick at 5:14 of the third period.

But Steve Smith tied it, again, for the Oilers at 10:54, flipping a short shot past Healy, and Esa Tikkanen gave the Oilers their first lead of the game by firing a long shot out of a faceoff in the left circle past Healy, who seemed to be screened.

For the first time this season, the Kings were the first to score, taking the 1-0 lead just 38 seconds into the game when Ron Duguay skated around behind the Oilers’ net and passed to Mike Krushelnyski, who beat Fuhr straight on.

Charlie Huddy evened it at 1-1 with a 50-foot shot from the right side at 7:04 on a power play.

A tangle in front of the benches resulted in a 2-minute penalty for boarding, 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct to Oiler winger Kelly Buchberger, a 10-minute misconduct to Oiler center Kevin McClelland, a 10-minute misconduct to King defenseman Tim Watters and a 10-minute game misconduct to Taylor.

All of which boiled down to a 2-minute power play for the Kings, and they didn’t score on it.

For the last 33 seconds of the first period and the first 3:27 of the second period the Kings had a power play after Oiler captain Mark Messier got 2 minutes for slashing and then another 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike conduct for his comments on the call.

The Kings didn’t score in that span, either.

The most incredible non-call of the night was a call that Oiler winger Normand Lacombe escaped after wrapping his stick around the back of Gretzky’s neck and yanking him to the ice midway through the second period.

Ftorek said: “It was an entertaining game for the fans, but the bottom line is we have to win games.”

The Kings (5-4) are tied with the Oilers (4-3-2) for second place in the Smythe Division, 2 points behind the leading Calgary Flames.

As Tonelli said: “It’s gonna be a tough division with lots of tough games. Tonight was a big game . . . we gave it a good effort.

“We didn’t think we gave it our best shot in Edmonton (in an 8-6 loss). Tonight, we had a tremendous amount of chances. I was disappointed in myself, but you take the game as a lesson.

“Fuhr made some good saves, but our goaltender made some good saves himself.”

King Notes

King left winger Bob Carpenter suffered a sprained right knee during the second period against the Oilers and missed the rest of the game. . . . The Kings’ consecutive games scoring streak went to 180, the longest in the league. . . . Luc Robitaille did not dress for the game Tuesday night because he was having trouble with his left knee, which he sprained earlier in the season. . . . King defenseman Tom Laidlaw also sat out, still recovering from a hamstring pulled in the game at Edmonton last Wednesday. . . . The Kings’ next game is Friday night at Winnipeg, the first of 6 games on a 12-day trip. . . . Going into Tuesday night’s game, the Kings led the NHL in scoring with 45 goals. . . . The sellout was the third for the Kings in 7 home games.