Scott Never Got Real Shot at Warming Up : Hockey: Oilers had only one shot in first period, but made the most of it. Rookie couldn’t finish first playoff game.

Perhaps the Kings were too good for their own good in the first period Sunday night against the Edmonton Oilers.

Ron Scott suggested as much after a 5-4 loss at the Forum.

“I never really got a feel of how the game was going,” said the 29-year-old rookie goaltender, who faced only one shot on goal in the first 20 minutes of his first playoff appearance. “Only giving them one shot in the first period maybe was the toughest thing that could have happened.

“After not having played for a month or so, it was tough to get into it, but we don’t need excuses now.”

What the Kings needed was better goaltending than they got from Scott, who hadn’t played since March 20, when he injured his back at Minnesota. Scott was chosen by Coach Tom Webster as the replacement for regular goaltender Kelly Hrudey, who was unable to play because of sore ribs.

Scott allowed four goals in 10 shots, enabling the Oilers to overcome a 3-1 deficit, before Webster pulled him at 12:13 of the second period.

Webster’s second choice was Mario Gosselin, a veteran of 29 previous playoff games who relieved Scott and gave up a goal on a breakaway by Adam Graves three minutes later, then held the Oilers scoreless.

Webster, though, refused to second-guess his decision.

“He has played well for us and he deserved a chance to start,” the coach said of Scott. “We talked it over and I made the decision to put him in goal. You can’t blame that on him tonight, not when you give up two-on-ones, three-on-twos, point-blank shots.”

Craig Simpson scored on a breakaway for the Oilers in the first period, then scored again from the middle of the slot at 5:34 of the second period after taking a pass from Jari Kurri, who blew past defenseman Steve Duchesne down the right side before centering the puck to Simpson.

Petr Klima tied the score on an uncontested shot from the left faceoff circle after Duchesne fell down and lost the puck.

Finally, Reijo Ruotsalainen faked Scott out of the crease, carried the puck behind the net and scored on a shot that ricocheted off Duchesne’s skate.

“Point-blank shots,” owner Bruce McNall called them.

But Scott said, “You’ve got to make some saves. They might have had some good opportunities, but every once in a while, you’ve got to stop one of the good opportunities and I wasn’t able to do it tonight.

“We had some great chances on (Oiler goaltender Bill Ranford) all night long and he came up with the saves.”

Scott didn’t, making the Kings’ lapses all the more glaring.

“You look at the shots on goal,” he said, knowing that the Kings enjoyed a 39-18 edge. “We had a 3-1 lead and let it get away. You’ve got to have good goaltending to win in the playoffs, and we didn’t have it tonight.”

Hrudey aggravated a rib injury Friday night at Edmonton.

“What happened is, I (was) injured in the Calgary series,” Hrudey told a Prime Ticket audience after the first period. “I took a lot of abuse in that series. It seemed to be getting better and better, but (he was injured again) on a real strange play. Kurri had the puck down low to my right and he tried to throw it across the (crease) and it deflected off something and sort of came right back to him.

“I was going one way, then I shifted my body to go back the other way and I just felt something pop in my ribs, right where I had injured (them) before.”

Will he return for Game 4?

“It doesn’t look good,” Webster said. “His ribs are pretty sore.”