Double Loss for Kings: Gretzky, Game : Hockey: Oilers take a 2-1 series lead with 4-3 victory in two overtimes. Gretzky leaves after being hit in head by Duchesne’s shot.

Two nights of heartbreaking injury.

Two double overtimes.

Too much for the Kings.

After losing Wayne Gretzky early in Game 3 of the Smythe Division finals, the Kings lost to the Edmonton Oilers, 4-3, 48 seconds into the second overtime Monday night before a sellout Northlands Coliseum crowd of 17,503.

The Oilers lead the best-of-seven series, 2-1, after their second consecutive double-overtime victory, with Game 4 here Wednesday night.

The winning sequence began with the Oilers’ Esa Tikkanen checking Tony Granato off the puck. Petr Klima recovered it and fed Tikkanen at the top of the right circle.

From there, Tikkanen sent a slap shot between the pads of goalie Kelly Hrudey for the winner in Edmonton’s fifth consecutive overtime game.

Gretzky left in the first period, blood streaming down his face after a puck that hit him in the left ear.

Hit inadvertently by teammate Steve Duchesne’s shot, Gretzky received about 25 stitches, joining teammates Tomas Sandstrom (broken leg), Bob Kudelski (sprained knee ligament) and Steve Kasper (concussion) on the injured list.

“He has a deep laceration,” team physician Steve Lombardo said of Gretzky. “We’ll have to fit him with a special helmet and see how he feels on the ice.”

Other than headaches and a ringing in the ears, Gretzky should have no lasting problems. An examination revealed no ear damage.

“No disrespect intended, but when you’re one of the players on the ice, you don’t worry when he’s not there,” Hrudey said of Gretzky. “Your job is to concentrate on what you’re doing and not worry about who is missing.

“This is hockey, not a spiritual gathering.”

Of the winning goal, Hrudey said Tikkanen “had it on the side boards there and just spun and shot it. It just hit my stick and pad and went in. He really got a lot on it, spinning around like it was. I was surprised.”

That left Coach Tom Webster, already juggling his lines, with combinations perhaps he never dreamed of.

Veteran John Tonelli took over Gretzky’s spot as center on the first line and scored two goals. His linemates were Tony Granato, the only remnant of the Kings’ regular first line, and seldom-used Ilkka Sinisalo.

Scott Bjugstad also centered a line.

But in the end, it wasn’t enough.

Neither team could do anything offensively until the second period, when the Oilers finally broke through on Jeff Beukeboom’s first playoff goal. It came at 4:48 of the period, Beukeboom’s shot bouncing off Marty McSorley before going into the net.

But Luc Robitaille tied the score at 18:08 on a power play with his eighth postseason goal and fourth of this series.

It was then that Tonelli skated forward. He scored his first playoff goal at 5:38 of the third period on another power play, shooting from the slot while sandwiched between two Oilers.

Tikkanen answered at 11:16, going the length of the ice through three Kings to score his eighth postseason goal and make the score 2-2.

Tonelli’s second goal came 36 seconds later. He backhanded the puck through Fuhr’s legs to push the Kings back in front.

But at 14:55 of the period, Anatoli Semenov, poised on the edge of the crease, took a perfect pass from Martin Gelinas and rammed the puck past Hrudey for his third playoff goal, sending the game into overtime.

Hrudey had to make one crucial save after another during the first extra period.

With three minutes gone, Klima took a shot from just a few feet outside the right post that Hrudey hit the ice to block.

With six minutes elapsed, the Oilers came within inches of a victory. Adam Graves took a 70-foot shot that Hrudey blocked, but it bounced behind him and rolled slowly, toward the goal line.

Hrudey spun around, dropped to his knees, stretched out his stick and corraled the puck no more than two inches from the goal line.

With the period half over, and Hrudey forced out of the crease to make a block, Klima got the puck and the open left side of the net to shoot at, only to hit the post.

“It was unfortunate that we lost,” Webster said, “but out of losses, great things sometimes happen.”

Said Hrudey: “If we need some excuses to quit,they’re all right there, but there’s no signs of quitting.”

King Notes

Steve Kasper practiced Sunday and had hoped to play Monday. But when he jogged Monday morning, the headaches brought on by the concussion returned, delaying his return to the lineup. . . . Edmonton defenseman Craig Muni has responded to the charge that his crippling blows to both Tomas Sandstrom and Bob Kudelski during Game 2 were not clean shots. “I don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Muni said, “or have an injury affect a career. Everybody in the league knows I like open-ice hits. The other players are doing their job and I’m doing mine. If somebody gets mad, fine.”

The Oilers tied the NHL record for consecutive postseason overtimes. In 1951, the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Montreal Canadiens in five games in the Stanley Cup Finals, all five games going into overtime. . . . To augment their depleted ranks, the Kings called up forward Sylvain Couturier from their Phoenix Roadrunner farm team. Couturier had 50 goals and a total of 87 points in 66 regular-season games with Phoenix this season along with two goals and an assist in four playoff games. In a three-game stint with the Kings earlier this season, he had one assist.