Hrudey Regains Form as Kings Rally for Tie

Kelly Hrudey was back in front of the nets after more than a week on the Kings’ bench, and so was his game.

After giving up a couple of early goals, Hrudey starting feeling at home in one of his favorite rinks, in his hometown, before friends and family.

He felt even better after the Kings tied the Edmonton Oilers, 2-2, Wednesday night before a less-than-capacity crowd of 16,647 at Northlands Coliseum.

Hrudey stopped 31 of the 33 shots he faced, and the Kings came back from a 2-0 deficit.

“It was a good game for Kelly to bounce back,” King Coach Tom Webster said. “He had a little time to rest and get mentally prepared for this. He had played a lot of hockey. And we hadn’t played well in front of him.”

Webster was recalling the Kings’ earlier four-game losing streak. Hrudey started all four of those games. At Buffalo, he was pulled after giving up three goals on seven shots in the first period, but the 5-3 loss was charged to Mario Gosselin.

Gosselin then started against Montreal and Calgary and came away with victories as the team started to regain form.

In Edmonton, it was time to give Hrudey another shot.

He held the Oilers off through most of the second period, all of the third and then the overtime.

The tie gave the Kings sole possession of second place in the Smythe Division with a record of 9-10-1. The Oilers are still last at 6-9-5.

“We feel like we’re playing much better hockey the last three games, the last four games, really,” Wayne Gretzky said. “When we lost to Calgary (last Wednesday), we felt we had reason to feel good about the way we had played. Then to play Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton--two of the three on the road--and come away with five points? We’re pretty happy with that.”

Gretzky has been getting more than a star’s share of ice time. Against the Oilers, Webster went with only three lines. And Gretzky did his usual power-play and penalty-killing duty.

“I’ve done that my whole career,” Gretzky said. “It doesn’t bother me.”

Gretzky had only one assist against the Oilers, but it was a big one. Gretzky sent the puck out front to another former Oiler, Marty McSorley, for the tying goal.

It was the second night in a row that McSorley had a big goal. Tuesday night he got his first goal of the season to give the Kings a 6-5 lead in an 8-6 victory. That came while he was playing right wing. Wednesday he scored while he was a defenseman.

The Oilers had taken a 1-0 lead in the first period on a goal by Craig MacTavish. That short-handed score came after Jari Kurri took away the puck from the Kings’ new defenseman, Brian Benning, in the Oiler zone. Benning said that he was handcuffed on the play, explaining that he was just too close to the puck when he tried to shoot it and he lost it. It went right to Kurri, who gave it to MacTavish for the rush at Hrudey.

But that was a rare off-moment for Benning, who has had ample playing time since being acquired from the St. Louis Blues less than a week ago. Edmonton is home for Benning, too. And he was thrilled to be playing full shifts alongside former Montreal star Larry Robinson. Still, the Oiler lead went to 2-0 just 3 minutes 40 seconds into the second period on a score credited to Esa Tikkanen that the Kings argued.

Hrudey had made the first stop, blocking Tikkanen’s slapshot through the slot, but when he shoveled the rebound out, it went into Tikkanen’s skate as he slid through the crease. The Kings thought that Tikkanen had kicked in the puck. More likely, the puck went off Tikkanen’s skate, then off Hrudey and into the net.

John Tonelli began the Kings’ comeback when he set up Steve Kasper’s goal at 10:24 of the second period. Tonelli skated back and forth behind the net until he had Oiler goalie Ranford off balance, then sent the puck out front to Kasper for the score.

McSorley, who had been jousting all night with many of his former Oiler teammates, was charged with a penalty at 15:54 of the second period for tripping Peter Eriksson.

However, the short-handed Kings were sustaining an attack on the Oiler net when McSorley came out of the penalty box and waded into the fray, getting there just in time to take a pass from Gretzky from behind the net and make a shot. Ranford stopped McSorley’s first try, but McSorley scored on the rebound to tie the game just before the second period ended.

“Marty has been jumping up into the play,” Webster said. “That’s good . . .

“This was a hard-working hockey game tonight. We have to keep that up. Now that we’re on a little winning streak, we can’t sit back.”

King Notes

The Kings are 1-1-1 against the Oilers this season. . . . The last time the Kings played here, Wayne Gretzky broke Gordie Howe’s scoring record with the tying goal and then gave the Kings their winning goal in a 5-4 overtime victory. . . . The Kings have an overtime record this season of 1-1-1, including the loss at Boston. . . . Barry Beck’s right thumb, which has been in a splint since he hurt it in a game against Calgary last week, has a hairline fracture. . . . Petr Prajsler, who went home to Los Angeles to have his sprained right knee evaluated, is listed as “day-to-day” with an injury not as serious as first feared.

Rick Green, currently retired from the Montreal Canadiens, said Monday that he would make a comeback to play for Los Angeles, but that he was not interested in playing for any other team. King General Manager Rogie Vachon has said that the Kings would be interested in Green only if the price were not too high--and no deal is imminent. Vachon did deny the latest reports out of Montreal, that Green would be included with Russ Courtnall in a trade for the Kings’ Luc Robitaille. . . . The Kings will travel home today to prepare for a game Saturday night against the Washington Capitals.