For Kings, It Is a Bad Night on All Counts

Sooner or later, the Kings’ winning streak had to end and Tuesday night it came to a screeching halt. After spotting the Oilers two first-period power-play goals, the Kings tried to at least keep an unbeaten streak alive with a score in the second, but gave up two more goals in the third and lost, 4-1, before 14,671 at the Edmonton Coliseum.

Mariusz Czerkawski had two goals and an assist, and Jason Arnott had a goal and three assists to lead Edmonton to its third win in six games against the Kings.

The defeat not only ended the Kings’ five-game win streak but they also may have lost goaltender Stephane Fiset for an undetermined time because of a groin injury he suffered in the first period. Fiset, replaced by Byron Dafoe, is listed as day-to-day.

“We didn’t play very disciplined,” said King Coach Larry Robinson, who was not pleased with the Oilers’ 44 shots on goal. “I thought our defensemen were horrible moving the puck and our forwards were not hustling back to get into position. It was an overall poor effort to play good position hockey.”

The Kings, who defeated the Oilers by three goals at the Forum last week, had entered with the longest current win streak in the league. But during the stretch, the Kings had scored first in four of the five games they won and had only trailed for 52 seconds in any of them.

“They started much better [than they did at the Forum],” forward Dimitri Khristich said about Edmonton’s first period in which the Oilers outshot the Kings, 18-6. “They were all over us . . . just like the way we had beat teams the last couple of games.”

It was clear that the Oilers regarded Tuesday night’s game as important. After losing two games in a row at home and four of five overall, the Oilers felt pressure to defeat the Kings before starting a five-game trip to the East Coast.

Goaltender Curtis Joseph started instead of Bob Essensa, who lost to the Kings last week, and veteran defenseman Boris Mironov returned after missing five games because of a groin injury.

“We seem to have struggled against teams like L.A. . . . teams we need to beat,” Edmonton center Todd Marchant said before the game. “[Tonight] is another game we can’t take lightly. . . . [Last game] they outhit us and outplayed us. They handed us a 6-3 loss and it didn’t sit very well with the guys.”

The Oilers’ first power-play score came after the Kings’ Eddie Olczyk was called for hooking at 12:32. With the fifth-best power-play in the league, the Oilers quickly attacked Fiset and finally scored when winger Ryan Smyth dug out the puck in front of the Kings’ net at 13:37.

Arnott began the play with a slap shot only to have Fiset partially block it. But despite defenseman Mattias Norstrom’s effort to keep the puck from crossing the red line, Smyth was able to just get his stick on it for the game’s first goal.

The Oilers second power-play goal came after a questionable interference call on the Kings’ Doug Zmolek. Czerkawski scored from the slot at 16:05 after the Kings’ failed to clear the puck from their zone.

With a two-goal deficit, the Kings’ problems grew when Fiset was kept out after injuring his groin, which had bothered him earlier this season, and defenseman Steven Finn was ruled out because of a shoulder strain.

“It’s almost like I had to be a relief pitcher,” said Dafoe, who had played in only two games since Feb. 1. “I tried to give the guys a jump by making some saves early and hope that we could make a game of it.”