Knickle, Kings Extend Winning Streaks to Three : Hockey: He gets 25 saves during 6-1 victory over the Oilers and now has won four of six starts.

When the Kings signed goaltender Rick Knickle in mid-February, they were venturing into the unknown by turning to the career minor leaguer to help dig them out of their lengthy slump.

“We were counting on Rick,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “Either we would look stupid or like geniuses.”

With the Kings defeating the Edmonton Oilers, 6-1, before a sellout crowd of 16,005 at the Forum on Saturday night, it is starting to look like the latter. The Kings coaches were calling this one of the biggest games of the season, and the victory effectively shut down the Oilers’ playoff chances.

What has helped turn it around for the Kings is a revival of their offense. They have scored 20 goals in their last three games, and it’s no coincidence that they have won all three.

The third-place Kings (30-29-7) crept back over .500 for the first time since Feb. 17 and took a 13-point lead over the fifth-place Oilers in the Smythe Division. They have a three-point lead over fourth-place Winnipeg, which lost to Toronto. More importantly, the Kings are starting to show some momentum in the final one-fourth of the season by winning their third consecutive game.

“We’re not worried about Edmonton or anybody else,” center Jimmy Carson said. “We just have to worry about ourselves.”

They hadn’t won three consecutive games since early December, back in the days when they were vying for the league’s overall lead. Knickle has been in the net for all three victories this week.

Knickle, who turned 33 last week, was an unlikely choice as the one who would stabilize the Kings’ goaltending situation. He played more than 500 games in the minor leagues for 11 teams in 14 seasons. After his so-so performance during Thursday’s victory over Ottawa, Melrose and assistant coach Cap Raeder were uncertain about who should start--Knickle, Kelly Hrudey or Robb Stauber--and didn’t make their decision until Saturday morning.

“Cap and I were throwing a lot of ideas around,” Melrose said. “We were playing devil’s advocate. The bottom line, is Rick didn’t play well, and he won. He was average, and he found a way to win. We wanted to give him a chance to see how he would come back.”

Their hunch turned out to be correct as Knickle looked much sharper against the Oilers, making 25 saves. He has won four of his six starts.

Knickle and Edmonton’s Bill Ranford had a bit of goaltending duel through the first period. Despite outshooting the Oilers, 24-9, during the first, the Kings led by only 2-1 on goals by Wayne Gretzky, his seventh of the season, and Jimmy Carson, his 31st. Carson’s goal came with only 1:13 left in the period as he picked up a loose puck that went off Oiler Shayne Corson. Carson leaned into the slap shot at the top of the right circle and got it past Ranford.

The Kings kept chipping away at Ranford and he finally started to give way against the 52 shots on goal. Gary Shuchuck scored his second of the season at 5:09 of the second period and Luc Robitaille added his 46th at 18:09.

Robitaille, who is on a 60-goal pace, picked up his second goal and 47th of the season with 3:20 remaining in the game. He added one assist. Gretzky had three points on one goal and two assists. Jari Kurri had a goal and an assist.

“We dominated so much that it was really tough to keep my concentration,” Knickle said. “But you don’t want to let the team down when you’re peppering the other guy with 52 (shots) and I’m only getting half as many.”

King Notes

For rookie goaltender Robb Stauber, his prolonged period of inactivity is growing more and more frustrating. Stauber says he is getting mixed signals. Coach Barry Melrose told him he will play again, but Stauber’s agent, Jay Grossman, spoke with King General Manager Nick Beverley last week and heard something else. Said Stauber, who has not started since Feb. 11: “He (Beverley) said it would be OK to talk to other teams to see what kind of interest was out there.” Beverly emphatically denied that. Stauber also said: “I have been in the organization for four years and hope to start a future here. If I don’t have a future here, I’d like to see what I could do somewhere else.”