Power Play Pays Off as Kings Beat Whalers : Hockey: L.A. goes four for eight with Hartford short-handed. Robitaille, Gretzky each get four points in 6-4 victory.

If Wayne Gretzky’s so-called “office” is behind the net, then Luc Robitaille’s favorite place to work is next to the crease.

Robitaille and Gretzky combined for eight points, and the Kings were impressive on the power play in their 6-4 victory over the Hartford Whalers Wednesday. Gretzky’s first goal, at 10:34 of the first period, was his 2,400th NHL point.

The fickle nature of the power play ended up leading the Kings, who were four for eight with an advantage. But it also caused them and the sellout Forum crowd of 16,005 a few anxious moments.

It had appeared as though Robitaille’s second goal and fourth point of the night decided the issue with 2:48 remaining in the game when he scored on the power play after Alexei Zhitnik’s slap shot was tipped and trickled under Whaler goalie Sean Burke. Robitaille, from the edge of the right crease, had an easy tap-in.

Then referee Denis Morel shocked almost everyone by calling a penalty on King defenseman Rob Blake with 1:32 left.

The Kings not only had to kill off the penalty, but it turned into a six-on-four advantage when Burke was pulled for an extra attacker.

“I knew he was going to call it,” King Coach Barry Melrose said. “Deja vu. I don’t know, I’m clairvoyant. I’ve been watching the Dionne Warwick station.”

Gretzky ended the suspense by getting his second goal of the night and fourth point, finishing off a give-and-go with Jari Kurri with an empty-netter with 36 seconds remaining. The Kings (17-21-4) are 6-2-1 in their last nine games and are one point out of a playoff spot.

“It was like pulling teeth tonight,” Melrose said. “The game last night took a lot out of us. It was very hard. We weren’t at our best tonight, but we still found a way to win.”

Said Whaler Coach Pierre McGuire: “Their power play is obviously very talented. You are talking about a lot of rifles there, and they’re all full of bullets.”

Yet it turned into a close game when the Whalers scored twice to tie the score, 4-4, starting with Geoff Sanderson’s power-play goal at 18:41 of the second period.

Then in the third, the Kings could only dodge the danger of the breakaway so long. Goaltender Kelly Hrudey stopped the Whalers’ first three breakaways, but forward Michael Nylander converted on the fourth at 5:10 of the third. Nylander, having been shut out twice on breakaways, figured Hrudey out on his third of the night to tie the score at 4-4.

Until late in the second, it had seemed as though the Kings’ potent power play would be enough to give them some room against Hartford since the Kings have the NHL’s best power play at home with a success rate of 29.8%.

Two of the power-play goals came in the second period from Robitaille at 9:20 and Tomas Sandstrom at 13:28. Those goals gave the Kings a 4-2 lead. It was Robitaille’s 23rd of the season and 14th on the power play. Sandstrom, who has 15 goals, has scored five goals in the last five games.

The first two King goals came from Kurri at 2:32 of the second period and Gretzky on the power play at 10:34 of the first. Gretzky scored when his shot from the lower right circle went off defenseman Bryan Marchment’s skate and squirted between Burke’s pads.

Gretzky’s two goals were his 18th and 19th of the season, and he now needs 18 goals to pass Gordie Howe’s all-time record of 801 NHL goals. He had been thinking about his 2,400th point, saying: “It’s kind of funny. For someone to break that, they’d have to play 24 years and score 100 points a year. So I guess that’s pretty good.”

King Notes

Coach Barry Melrose was pleased with forward Dixon Ward’s debut on Tuesday night against San Jose. Ward, acquired on Saturday from Vancouver for center Jimmy Carson, had three good scoring opportunities, fought Bob Errey and drew a penalty to give the Kings a power play late in the game. “I liked him,” Melrose said. “He checks. He can take draws. He did everything. He’s like a bigger (Tony) Granato. He makes people mad at him.” . . . Left wing Warren Rychel (left ankle bruise) was scratched against the Whalers. Right wing Dave Taylor (concussion) was scratched for the third consecutive game. Defenseman Rob Blake (sprained knee) was going to sit out, but he took the pregame warm-up and felt good enough to play. Forward Phil Crowe was a healthy scratch.