Oilers Stay Hot, Defeat Kings, 5-4, in Overtime : Hockey: Resurgent Edmonton is 9-1-1 in its last 11 games, a streak that has taken club from last to atop the Smythe Division.

Is there life after Wayne Gretzky?

Apparently so.

The Edmonton Oilers, decimated by the trading of their superstar to the Kings before last season and mired in last place in the Smythe Division three weeks ago, are beginning to rise again, bringing shudders from the rest of an NHL that remembers all too well the Oiler rampage through the 1980s that resulted in four Stanley Cup championships in six seasons.

That, of course, was largely due to Gretzky, but there are new stars here now, several of whom helped the rejuvenated Oilers defeat the Kings Friday night, 5-4, in overtime, for their sixth consecutive victory. In their last 11 games, the Oilers are 9-1-1 to move atop the division.

The winning goal came at 2:03. A pass by Bernie Nicholls was intercepted by Oiler right winger Jari Kurri, who skated into the Kings’ zone, flipped the puck behind him to teammate Petr Klima, then received it back on a pass into the right corner.

From there, Kurri passed it in front of the net to the waiting stick of Mark Lamb, who was barreling down the middle.

In an instant, Lamb, King goalie Kelly Hrudey, stick and puck all came together.

There was little Hrudey could do as Lamb flipped the puck past him, sending the Northlands Coliseum crowd of 17,503 home into the snowy night.

“It was an easy goal,” Lamb said. “The pass was right on my stick.”

Lamb was smiling as he spoke, but that was not the case in the second period when he misfired on a breakaway.

“That (the goal) kind of made up for the breakaway,” he said. “I had too much time to think on that one. There were a million things on my mind. That would have made them fold.”

It would have made the score 5-2 at the time.

In losing anyway, the Kings (14-12-2) fell five points behind the Oilers (15-10-5).

It certainly didn’t appear the game would be close in the second period, when the Oilers took a 4-1 lead.

But the Kings crept back and tied the score in the third period on a Gretzky power-play goal.

Standing behind the Oiler net at the 14:30 mark, Getzky pushed the puck into the crease, where it caromed off the skate of Adam Graves into the net.

“I just threw it in front and it hit Adam in the skate,” Gretzky said. “It was just one of those lucky goals. It happens.”

It was Gretzky’s 13th goal of the season and his fourth on the power play. Earlier, he had extended his scoring streak to 14 games with an assist.

Edmonton defenseman Randy Gregg opened the scoring with his first goal of the season. Taking a perfect pass from Klima in the left corner, Gregg--wide open--smacked the puck in at 6:10 of the first period. Lamb also got an assist on the play.

The Oilers’ other goal of the period came on a power play at 15:21, Mark Messier scoring his 19th of the season from the middle of the right circle. It was his sixth power-play goal, with assists going to Steve Smith and Charlie Huddy.

The Kings’ offense went from weak to non-existent. They took only six shots on goal in the period, none in the last 8 1/2 minutes.

But early in the second period, the Kings got back in the game on a power play goal initiated by Luc Robitaille. From behind the net, Robitaille flipped the puck out to Gretzky, who passed it to Steve Duchesne. Duchesne responded with his eighth goal of the season at 1:51 and the Kings had pulled to 2-1.

But the Oilers came back with two second-period goals. The first came on a shot by Craig Simpson, who scored his 11th goal at 7:04, past goalie Hrudey on his short side with the assist to Glenn Anderson.

The second came on a power play. Kurri fired a shot that Hrudey deflected off the boards. The rebound came back to Klima, who backhanded it in at 12:47. It was Klima’s sixth goal, his third on a power play.

The Kings got their second goal at 15:43 when Duchesne carried the puck to the goal mouth. There it was pushed away by goalie Grant Fuhr. But John Tonelli followed the puck across the goal mouth and pushed it back in.

The Kings again pulled to within one when Mike Krushelnyski scored a short-handed goal at 7:45 of the final period.

“We showed a lot of character coming back,” Hrudey said. “We stuck our noses in it. To lose then was a bit of a heartbreak.”

King Notes

Much of the world may be intrigued by the Soviets, but apparently not Edmonton. Wednesday’s exhibition game here between the Oilers and Khimik Voskresensk, a touring Soviet squad, drew only 6,804, smallest crowd ever in Northlands Coliseum. . . . How big was the game to the Oilers? “It was better than practicing,” said Edmonton Coach John Muckler. . . . Because Khimik played the Kings earlier in the week, Soviet Coach Vladimir Vasiliev was asked by an Edmonton Journal reporter to compare the two squads. “The Oilers are much stronger,” Vasiliev said. “It seems to me they have more superstars than Los Angeles. Of course, it goes without saying (Wayne) Gretzky is superstar No. 1.”

Another Edmonton paper, the Sun, is asking its readers to pick the newsmaker of the decade. Among the top choices are both Gretzky and Peter Pocklington, the man who traded him to the Kings.