A Familiar Finish for Kings as Season Ends in Oilertime : Stanley Cup playoffs: MacTavish’s goal gives Edmonton its third overtime victory of the series. L.A. offense comes up short.

The Kings came to training camp last fall with a new philosophy, a new work ethic and a new defense. It was a sweet beginning at their training site in Hull.

It couldn’t prevent the same old, bitter ending in the second round of the playoffs in Edmonton.

The team that had won its first Smythe Division title with its defense lost its hopes for a Stanley Cup because of its offense.

The Kings’ season of accomplishment ended at 16:57 of overtime Sunday night in Northlands Coliseum when the Oilers’ Craig MacTavish smashed the puck under goalie Kelly Hrudey’s left leg to give Edmonton a 4-3 victory in the sixth and deciding game of the Smythe Division finals.

The loss was especially tough on General Manager Rogie Vachon, who plugged up the holes from last season to put together the best King club in years.

Tough on Coach Tom Webster, who designed the defensive game plan that led to the big regular season.

Tough on Hrudey, who came back from an injury-plagued year with his best season.

Tough on veteran Larry Robinson, who proved he could still play at 39.

And tough on Wayne Gretzky, who, for the second year in a row, saw the Stanley Cup dreams of his present team ended by the Stanley Cup champions from his old team.

There were bright season memories for the Kings of a club-record 46 victories, the Smythe title and the unaccustomed role of favorites in the division playoffs.

But when all was said and done, the final image remained unchanged from a year earlier--the Kings trudging off the ice, heads down, while the Oilers held their heads and sticks high, hugging and dancing with unbridled joy.

“We’re pretty disappointed,” Hrudey said. “We had high hopes. We worked awfully hard. We worked like tigers to get first place. We knew we had to do well in the playoffs.

“The second round has been a stumbling block the last two years. We came to camp in shape and worked hard all year to get past this round. But to lose three games in overtime was devastating.”

Four of the six games in this series went into overtime.

The Kings certainly had their opportunities in Game 6, especially after Edmonton goalie Grant Fuhr was knocked out of action early in the third period.

It was offensive inertia that put the Kings in a hole in the first place. They were outshot, 7-1, in the first 12 minutes of play, Edmonton taking the early lead on Craig Simpson’s third postseason goal.

Esa Tikkanen, who switched his usual emphasis from defense to offense in this series, put the Oilers in front, 2-0, at 2:03 of the second period.

The Oilers looked unbeatable. Fuhr, after having an off night in Game 5, was back to his brilliant postseason form, blocking, deflecting and kicking away everything that came within his reach.

But then the Oilers’ dominance ended.

The Kings, outshot at that point, 17-10, couldn’t miss. And the Oilers couldn’t buy a shot.

Much to the horror of the sellout crowd of 17,503, the momentum shifted.

The Kings ran off 18 consecutive shots and 19 of 20.

They got back in the game on Tomas Sandstrom’s fourth postseason goal at 11:21 of the second period, his first goal since returning in Game 5, despite a small fracture in the right leg.

And the Kings got even at 14:34 of the period on Luc Robitaille’s team-record 12th postseason goal.

In the third period, the Kings surged ahead on a play that seemed to spell doom for the Oilers.

Taking a pass from Steve Kasper, Mike Donnelly skated down the right side, through the crease and put one past the diving Fuhr.

Even more damaging for Fuhr was teammate Steve Smith, who, hot in pursuit of Donnelly, crashed instead into Fuhr.

As the two rolled into the net, Smith smacked Fuhr’s right arm into the right post.

He had to leave the game with a contusion of the right arm.

Backup goalie Bill Ranford figured to be rusty, having played only once in the postseason, in the series opener.

But the Kings never got to the MVP of last season’s playoffs.

In the meantime, Tikkanen scored again, at 12:38 of the period, to tie the score.

In the overtime, Duchesne lost the puck to Petr Klima on the left boards. Klima skated around behind the net and threw the puck in front, where MacTavish, with Robinson on his back, caught up to it.

As Hrudey fell, MacTavish, with Robinson on top of him, shoved the puck under the King goalie.

Eleven seconds before MacTavish’s winning goal, it appeared the Oilers had won. With Hrudey down and Robitaille and Martin Gelinas battling in the crease, Anatoli Semenov fired the puck into the net. The red light went on and the crowd began celebrating. But referee Kerry Fraser ruled that Gelinas was illegally in the crease, sending the Oilers into a rage. However, that soon became academic.

In the end, the Kings failed to generate the kind of offense that was once their forte, and that was their undoing. Their first line, so dominating in the regular season, was ineffective in this series. On that line, Gretzky was playing with a lacerated ear, Sandstrom with a fracture and Tony Granato in his worst slump of the season.

“I think this team is very close,” King owner Bruce McNall said afterward. “I feel they are much further along than a year ago. They learned how to play defense.

“We’re real close. But an inch can be a mile.”

* WINNING HAND: Edmonton received major contributions from several sources--among them Esa Tikkanen, Craig MacTavish, Petr Klima and Bill Ranford--in the Oilers’ series-clinching victory over the Kings. C10