Kings’ Three-Goal Lead Turns Into a 7-6 Defeat

It was a little more than three minutes of ecstasy for the Kings.

Followed by five minutes of agony.

As a result, the Kings, who scored four goals in 3:19 Thursday night and led the Edmonton Oilers by three goals after two periods, wound up with a 7-6 defeat after Edmonton scored four goals in the final 20 minutes.

Three of those came when Marty McSorley was slapped with a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for high-sticking. McSorley drew blood from below Jari Kurri’s lip, causing the automatic five-minute call.

“He has a short stick and plays close to the ice,” McSorley said of Kurri. “I was pulling the guy with my stick as everybody does. The stick came up and hooked him on the chin. It was an accident. What do you do? What do you say? It was unfortunate to do this to my team.”

McSorley went out at 4:04 of the final period, to the cheers of the sellout crowd of 17,503 at Northlands Coliseum.

At 4:19, Vladimir Ruzicka scored his second goal of the game; at 6:57, Petr Klima scored and, adding insult to his injury, Kurri scored the game-tying goal at 8:44.

Three power plays off one penalty and a three-goal lead was lost.

“That’s why they play 60 minutes,” said Coach Tom Webster, grinding a stick into splinters as he spoke to reporters. “It’s very devastating.”

The winning goal came at 15:06. Craig Muni sent in a shot from near the goal line in the left corner. It bounced off goalie Kelly Hrudey’s glove, his shoulder and then the number on his back on the way down, landing behind him on the right side.

That’s where Glenn Anderson was standing. He pushed the puck in for his 19th goal and the Kings, despite a hat trick by Dave Taylor, had dropped to 21-22-6, 11 points behind the Oilers, co-leaders of the Smythe Division.

Ruzicka, the newly arrived Czechoslovakian, opened the scoring with his first NHL goal.

The former team captain of the Czech national team, Ruzicka signed a contract with the Oilers the middle of last month. In his first two games, he had taken five shots on goal. All had missed.

His sixth found the net.

It came 2:58 into the game on a slap shot from the right circle on the power play.

The Kings tied the score at 8:56. Taylor, off a centering pass from Todd Elik, fired from the slot, the puck eluding both defenseman Charlie Huddy and goalie Bill Ranford.

Edmonton went back into the lead on a short-handed goal, the club’s 12th of the season to tie for the league lead.

Kurri carried the puck down the left side on a two-on-one rush with defenseman Steve Duchesne caught in the middle. Kurri slid the puck past him to teammate Mark Messier, skating down the middle. Messier slammed it home at 12:17, his 28th and second short-handed.

That’s how the period ended. When the Kings returned, they seemed a different club.

The beginning of their four-goal explosion came 32 seconds into the second period.

Duchesne fired from the point, but Ranford blocked it. Brian Benning got the rebound and tried to shove it in, but Ranford blocked that as well.

Again the rebound came out to a King stick, this time John Tonelli’s, and, this time, Ranford was out of position. Tonelli got his 20th goal and eighth on a power play with a wrist shot from a few feet away.

The Kings were just warming up on the Edmonton ice.

The next goals came in rapid succession:

--Barry Beck got his first goal of the season at 3:06 on a 50-foot slap shot from behind the left circle.

--Taylor scored 15 seconds later, from close range after a centering pass from Elik.

--Just 30 seconds later, Tony Granato took a pass from Tonelli at the left post. When Ranford fell down, Granato calmly skated in front of him along the mouth of the goal, found an opening and shoved it in for his eighth goal of the season.

In all, the Kings had scored three goals in 45 seconds and four in 3:19 to move into a 5-2 lead.

That was the shortest amount of time ever required to score four goals on an Oiler team.

It was not, however, a King record. The 1977-78 team scored four goals in 2:21.

The King record for three goals was set last year in 41 seconds. The two teams closed out the period exchanging goals, Esa Tikkanen getting his 21st for Edmonton, followed by the completion of Taylor’s hat trick.

King Notes

Tomas Sandstrom is playing right wing on a line with center Wayne Gretzky and Mikko Makela. Tony Granato, also a right winger, is playing with Steve Kasper at center and John Tonelli on the other side. That leaves rookie Todd Elik centering a line that includes Luc Robitaille on the left and Dave Taylor. The fourth line consists of Mike Krushelnyski at center, with Keith Crowder on the right and Jay Miller on the left. Krushelnyski had been playing on Gretzky’s line. . . . Said Coach Tom Webster of Sandstrom, “He has speed, strength and the skills to provide us with some offense while, at the same time, he works hard on defense. He’s the kind of guy who thrives on ice time.” . . . Of Granato, Webster said: “He can do things offensively, but he’s better defensively. He’s very quick, a good checker, a good penalty-killer and he can provide us with a spark. . . . The Kings return home for four games, including Saturday’s return of Bernie Nicholls with his new teammates, the New York Rangers.