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Oilers Slip One Past Hrudey to Win Game 4 : Kings Within One Game of Elimination After Loss

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<i> Times Staff Writer</i>

For a moment that seemed to last an eternity, the puck slid free in front of the Kings’ net, up for grabs. The puck, the game, most probably the playoff series, all up for grabs with the last seconds of the fourth game ticking off the clock at the Northlands Coliseum Sunday night.

King goalie Kelly Hrudey, who was sprawled on the ice stopping a shot by Mark Messier, 7reached out with his stick to try to cover the puck as it slid just out of his range.

From behind the net, Dave Taylor had his eye on it. But he was all tied up keeping Messier away from it. Wayne Gretzky, Steve Duchesne, Tim Watters--all were matched up one-on-one with Oilers in the standoff.

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Mike Krushelnyski was racing toward the net, too, but he was taken out of the play when Oiler defenseman Steve Smith whipped him around by the arm and threw him to the ice.

So much for old friendships.

With Krushelnyski sitting and waiting for a whistle and then scrambling to his skates, Smith pounced on the puck. With 26 seconds left, he flipped it high over the top of Hrudey to give the Oilers a 4-3 victory Sunday night and a three- games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven Smythe Division semifinal playoff.

The Oilers are one game away from advancing in their defense of the Stanley Cup title.

To the delight of 17,503 at the game Sunday night, the Oilers negated the home-ice advantage the Kings worked so hard for all season. If the Oilers don’t wrap up the series Tuesday night at the Forum, they’ll have the chance to wrap it up back here in front of the home fans in Game Six Thursday night.

Of course, the Kings could sweep the last three games and win the series Saturday night in Los Angeles. They have to think so, anyway. Or the millions of dollars and the young talent traded away over the season have not changed their postseason fortunes. They were eliminated after five games in the first round last season.

Asked how it felt to be on the wrong side of the edge for a change, Gretzky, the former Oiler, said: “It’s not fun. It’s not enjoyable. But when I was traded last summer from the champions to the 18th-place team I knew we had our work cut out for us.”

Sunday night, the Kings were in good position to get out of here with the series tied at two games each after Tom Laidlaw gave them a 3-2 near the end of the second period.

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Maybe they got too defensive-minded after that. Krushelnyski said: “We didn’t mean to sit on a one-goal lead, but maybe we did.”

The Oilers tied the game, 3-3, at 5:16 of the third period on a 35-foot shot by Norm Lancombe from the right-side boards. Hrudey called the shot a “knuckleball,” saying, “It was on end when he shot it and it just dipped on me.”

That was one of 32 shots Hrudey faced Sunday.

He had made a memorable save on a shot by Messier with just over a minute to go that had seemed, at the time, to be the save of the game. Hrudey had thrown himself on the ice trying to get in the way of the puck, but it was behind him. Still, he was able sweep his stick behind him and brush the puck safely aside.

“That’s as lucky a save as you’re ever going to see,” Hrudey said. “I thought that would do it. I didn’t think they’d get many other good chances with that time left. Which shows you how smart I am about hockey.”

Without pointing a finger at any one player or any one strategy, Hrudey simply said: “We just didn’t have a very good shift the last minute.”

Smith said the Oilers were concentrating on “crashing the net.” He said: “When we can go in with everybody that strong, we should score.”

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Smith, a defenseman who has been outstanding in this series, admitted that it’s not usually his role to score a winning goal in such a key game. Asked if he ever dreamed of such a moment, he shrugged: “I usually dream about mucking it out so somebody else can score the goal.”

For the last few months, he’s just been dreaming about playing. He had been out of a shoulder injury since early January. He had surgery on the shoulder Jan. 23 and just made it back in time for the playoffs.

“I think I’ve gone about 6,000 miles on the stationery bike to be ready for a night like this,” Smith said.

Oiler Coach Glen Sather held back nothing in his summation of the importance of Smith to Edmonton’s playoff success. “Without him, the series would have been over by now. We would have been out in four straight,” Sather said.

After shutting out the Kings, 4-0, here Saturday night, the Oilers had a much bigger battle on their hands Sunday night.

The Oilers led, 2-1, at the end of the first period, but the Kings came back strong in the second.

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Charlie Huddy gave the Oilers the early lead when he scored during a Kings line change. Duchesne tied it at 1-1 when Taylor sent a pass out front to him. And former King Jimmy Carson put the Oilers up again when he knocked in a rebound of his own shot.

The Kings scored the only two goals of the second period to take the lead.

Chris Kontos, the unlikely hero who had a hat trick in the Kings’ only victory of the season, got his fifth goal of the playoffs when he put in the rebound of a shot by Bernie Nicholls at 5:20.

Laidlaw gave the Kings the lead at 18:14 when he beat two fallen Oilers on the right side to fire the puck past Oiler goalie Grant Fuhr, who was set and waiting at the right side of the net for the shot.

But, once again, the Oilers put the game away while the Kings were trying to hold on to what they had.

As Gretzky keeps saying: “They know how to win.”

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