Kings Lose Lead, Then Gain Point With Tie

Although the Kings are in desperate need of victories, Saturday night’s 2-2 tie with the Edmonton Oilers could have been worse.

Before a Forum crowd of 12,027, the Kings blew a one-goal lead late in the third period and then exchanged missed chances in overtime and wound up with their second consecutive tie. The Kings, who improved to 19-31-8, tied Toronto, 4-4, on Thursday.

Defenseman Sean O’Donnell and forward Eddie Olczyk scored for the Kings, who are 0-0-2 in their three-game home stand. On Monday, the Kings will play Dallas at the Forum.

Playing with young forwards Roman Vopat, Nathan LaFayette and Jeff Shevalier in the lineup for the third game in a row, the Kings’ defense played well until late in the third period when they gave up a game-tying goal to the Oilers’ Jason Arnott.

With a 2-1 lead for most of the period, the Kings were on a power play with less than five minutes to go when Ray Ferraro was penalized for tripping. The Oilers were able to tie the game with 1:48 remaining in regulation when winger Andrei Kovalenko passed to Arnott, who scored a power-play goal from the right circle.

The Kings are 0-3-8 in overtime this season.

‘That’s been our story all year,” O’Donnell said. “We played a really solid game, then we let up for 10 seconds and it costs us.”

Led by captain Rob Blake and veteran defensemen Doug Zmolek, Mattias Norstrom, Steven Finn and O’Donnell, the Kings’ defense did a solid job in front of goaltender Stephane Fiset, who made 31 saves in getting his fifth tie of the season.

“Even though we need wins right now, you can’t knock anything when the guys are playing hard like they did,” King Coach Larry Robinson said. “We just have to stay close and not lose games.”

Before the season began, the Kings and Oilers were two rebuilding teams that had missed the playoffs the last couple of seasons.

With the Kings’ last postseason appearance being in 1993 and the Oilers’ in 1992, not much was expected from either team this season. For the Kings, it has been a season-long uphill battle in trying to prove their critics wrong, but not for the Oilers.

With a 28-24-5 record, Edmonton entered Saturday night’s game with 61 points and held the fourth position in the Western Conference playoff race. With 180 goals in their first 57 games, the Oilers’ offense had the second-best total in the conference behind the Colorado Avalanche, the defending Stanley Cup champions.

After both teams missed several scoring chances in a scoreless first period, Edmonton struck first when Kovalenko scored his 27th goal of the season after the Kings failed to clear the puck out their zone three consecutive times.

Kovalenko had missed a chance to shoot from the left circle before retrieving a loose puck and beating Fiset from in front of the crease to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead at 9:39 of the second period.

Led by veterans Kevin Stevens and Olczyk, the Kings quickly responded. After a missed scoring opportunity by Olczyk, Stevens skated with the puck from behind the Edmonton goal and with his back to Oiler goalie Curtis Joseph passed to Olczyk, who scored from the left post at 10:42 to tie the game.

For the next several minutes, Fiset and Joseph exchanged great saves, but the Kings got a break at 16:16 when Oiler winger Ryan Smith was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. With time running out on the penalty, the Kings took their first lead of the game when O’Donnell scored a power-play goal with 2:18 remaining in the period.

Shevalier, who has been playing as if he does not want to go back down to the minors, passed to O’Donnell, who scored from the left circle for his third goal in his last six games.

“He’s on a hot streak right now,” Robinson said of O’Donnell. “He’s been playing really well.”