Kings Have to Settle for a Tie : Hockey: Game with the Jets stretches Los Angeles’ winless streak to five games.

Coach Tom Webster has replaced injured Tomas Sandstrom with Luc Robitaille.

He has kept his team in a tie for the Smythe Division lead.

He has prevented the Calgary Flames from moving ahead for yet another day.

What more could a coach ask for?

How about a victory?

Although the Kings held on to tie the Winnipeg Jets Wednesday night, 3-3, before a Forum crowd of 14,646, the game extended the Kings’ winless streak to five games.

“We’d better get our act together,” Webster said.

When the Kings take the ice for a Forum rematch with Winnipeg Saturday, it will mark two full weeks since their last victory.

Over that span, the Kings are 0-2-3. But, with a 16-7-4 record, they are even with the Flames, 4-1 winners over the New York Rangers Wednesday night.

The Jets held on to fourth place in the division by one point over the fast-closing Edmonton Oilers. Winnipeg is 9-17-5.

“We’re not playing like a bunch of losers, but we’re going to have to play a lot better,” King goalie Kelly Hrudey said.

“The confidence just isn’t there. Two weeks ago, we were saying, ‘What’s this team coming into our building thinking they are going to take a point.’ Now we don’t have that confidence.”

Robitaille played on the first line with Wayne Gretzky and Tony Granato. Sandstrom is out with a small fracture in his lower back.

The loss of Robitaille from the second line didn’t hamper its effectiveness early in thegame.

Just the opposite.

Playing with replacement Mike Donnelly on his left side, center Todd Elik used the occasion to make his own reappearance in the goal-scoring column.

After scoring only one goal in his last nine games, Elik struck in the first period Wednesday.

Battling Phil Housley along the left boards, Elik controlled the puck, rushed the net and scored with a wrist shot over the stick of Winnipeg goalie Richard Tabaracci at the 5:50 mark. It was Elik’s ninth goal.

The Jets tied the score at 16:16 of the period on Pat Elynuik’s team-leading 11th goal.

Winnipeg went ahead at 10:05 of the second period on Paul MacDermid’s fifth goal, but Robitaille’s 12th goal, and his first with his new linemates, again deadlocked the game only 23 seconds later.

Gretzky put the Kings on top at 10:28 of the final period with his 17th goal to tie Sandstrom for the team lead.

But Danton Cole sent the game into overtime with a strong single-handed effort.

He skated in from the right side and shot, only to have Hrudey block the puck.

But as he did so, the King goalie’s momentum turned him away from Cole. The puck was still on the ice underneath Hrudey.

There was an opening of only about a foot between Hrudey and the ice as he started to fall,but that was all Cole, still in front of the net, needed to shove the puck in.

The goal, Cole’s fifth, came with 3:06 to play in the third period.

The Kings were outshot, 11-5 in the final regulation period, 2-1 in the overtime and 32-27 in the game.

“The other team is working harder than we are,” King center Steve Kasper said. “We shouldn’t be going on the ice seeing how the other team is going to play. We should have a hunger.”

After two weeks without a victory, that hunger should reach the starvation level.

King Notes

Forward Tomas Sandstrom could be out for a month, according to a club official. When Sandstrom suffered a small fracture in the lower back on Nov. 29 in St. Louis, it was estimated he’d be out a minimum of one to two weeks. Coach Tom Webster has since labeled that estimate “optimistic.” Said Sandstrom, “I’m just taking it week by week. I feel a lot better than I did a week ago.” The injury was originally believed to have occurred when Sandstrom slid into a goal post. Not so, Sandstrom said. “I cut in front of the net and got hit in the back with (Paul) Cavallini’s stick.” By the time Sandstrom hit the ice, the damage was already done.

Defenseman Bob Halkidis was rushed up on emergency recall Wednesday afternoon to replace Brian Benning after Benning experienced back spasms in the morning practice. Halkidis was down in the farm system, first with New Haven and then Phoenix, working his way back into shape after off-season shoulder surgery. Halkidis had a goal, three assists and 10 penalty minutes with the New Haven Nighthawks in seven games. He had appeared in only two games for the Phoenix Roadrunners, getting a goal, an assist and four penalty minutes.

Jet center Thomas Steen is out with a fractured ankle. Teammate Mark Osborne, a left wing, is out three months with torn ligaments and a fracture in his thumb. . . . The rematch with Winnipeg Saturday at the Forum is also the last night of the Kings For Kids toy drive. Fans are asked to bring unwrapped toys to the game. The toys will be donated to the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Orange County for the holidays.