For Kings, It’s a KO in Toronto : Hockey: They take the offensive, not only fighting but also scoring often to defeat Maple Leafs, 7-4.

King left wing Warren Rychel knew it was going to be that kind of game when he looked at the Maple Leafs’ starting lineup Saturday night.

“It was just a matter of who was going to go first,” Rychel said after the Kings defeated the Maple Leafs, 7-4, before a crowd of 15,728 at Maple Leaf Gardens. “(Ken) Baumgartner, (Greg) Smyth and one other clown, some bozo.”

It took a whole nine seconds for things to unravel. Rychel fought Smyth to a draw in a spirited brawl, setting the tone for the night. There were 228 penalty minutes in all, 111 were assessed to the Kings and 117 to the Maple Leafs.

In between, the offense came alive as the Kings opened a 7-0 lead with Wayne Gretzky scoring once and adding two assists, regaining the lead in the NHL’s scoring race. Left wing Mike Donnelly had one goal and two assists and John Druce and Tomas Sandstrom each had two goals.

Toronto scored twice in the final 5:39 when the game was long out of hand.

Each team had a switch of goaltenders. Toronto Coach Pat Burns pulled Felix Potvin after the struggling goaltender gave up four goals on 12 shots in the first period, replacing him with Damian Rhodes. Later, King goaltender Kelly Hrudey pulled himself at 11:39 of the third period, suffering from a strained hamstring in his left leg.

Hrudey revealed later that he injured the leg in Montreal on Nov. 27 and re-injured it in the second period Saturday.

“It was tough for me to make that decision,” Hrudey said. “I’ve never done that. The ironic part was in warm-ups and the first period once things loosened up, it was the best I felt in months. It wasn’t a move. It was some skating thing and I bent down and felt a strange feeling.

“I’ve never been injured. It’s a unique experience. I’ve always prided myself on being available. I may not have always played well, but I’ve always been available.”

Robb Stauber came in for Hrudey and for a brief moment it looked like Stauber might be gone, too, when he left the crease and tussled with Maple Leaf left wing Bill Berg with four seconds to play and racked up 14 penalty minutes on two minors and a 10-minute misconduct.

“We were looking for Rogie (Vachon),” said King Coach Barry Melrose, joking. “The lead wasn’t secure and there was too much time left to put (assistant coach) Cap (Raeder) in.”

Stauber seemed a little embarrassed when asked about going after Berg and landing a couple of shots. “Did I?” he said, laughing.

Explaining his action, Stauber said that Berg was going after King defenseman Brent Thompson and he was trying to help out. “They were running our guys,” Stauber said. “I came around the net and tried to slow him down. He looked like he was going to come at me, and well, I was going his way.”

Rychel was impressed by Stauber’s move.

“Good for him,” Rychel said. “Because that guy (Berg) is a cheap shot. He’s heartless and gutless. He’s always running guys from behind. I was loose. I could have got to him since I was the rover.”

Then Rychel shrugged, to suggest that might have been a waste of his time.

“We’ve got some help now,” he said. “Phil (Crowe) and Doug Houda and Brent Thompson. It seems like there is four heavyweights on each team. But I’ll go any way.”

Rychel showed off his battered hands.

“It stinks,” he said. “I want to be able to carry my kids. It’s a job and I’ve got to do it. Some of these guys don’t even bother with the other part of the game.”

And the other part of the game is going well for the Kings these days. Since losing to the Maple Leafs on Dec. 18, the Kings have lost once to Dallas and are 4-1-1 in their last six games.

“Our guys played the best game in front of me all year,” Hrudey said. “We were tough physically and kept the third man high all the time. In my mind I don’t think we gave up one out-numbered attack. It was a fun game to play in, which made it tough for me to come out.”