Hats Are Off to Oiler Laraque

Georges Laraque was a bull, the Kings were a china shop and at game’s end Monday night they were shattered crockery all over the ice.

Laraque, a mountain at 6 feet 3, 240 pounds, twice moved Aki Berg out of the way to score and sent Edmonton Oiler fans into the chill night bareheaded after his third goal in a 6-3 victory over the Kings before an announced crowd of 14,615 at Skyreach Centre.

“When I went out there and looked at the hats on the ice, I got tears in my eyes,” said Laraque, by vocation a fourth-line enforcer who speaks with an accent honed in his native Montreal and has some skating ability, all of it in a straight line.

“When I knew I was the first star and heard people calling my name, well, what else can I ask for me?”

Just this: The goals helped the Oilers move past the Colorado Avalanche and into the lead in the Northwest Division, and the Oilers’ 67 points are one more than the Kings in the wild, wacky Western Conference playoff standings, which should be written in pencil, rather than printers’ ink.

“We need to catch a breath,” said King Coach Andy Murray, whose team is 2-2 on a seven-games-in-11-nights odyssey. He told them before the game how much fun they were having, being in the playoff race after not qualifying for postseason in 1998-99.

Telling Berg he is having fun now is a hard sell.

“There’s not much to say,” Berg began. “I have to do a better job against him. On the last goal, he just beat me. I’ll try to do better.”

He has to. Berg is 6-3, 220 himself, and at times Laraque made him look like a lightweight.

The Kings took much of Monday night off and paid for it. Laraque’s first goal, scored at 7:34 of the opening period when he pushed his way past Ian Laperriere and rebounded a shot by Jim Dowd that Stephane Fiset had rejected, came on Edmonton’s 10th shot.

At the time, the Kings were without a shot.

They quickly took three ineffective shots, then got only one--a harmless effort by Jere Karalahti taken from far outside--in a four-minute power play that was their reward for Ethan Moreau’s transgressions.

Worse, Fiset had to deal with two Oiler shots at a time when he should have been a spectator.

“I didn’t like our game from the outset,” said Murray. “We did some good things, but overall we’ve got to play better.”

When the Kings worked, they scored, which should have told them something.

Luc Robitaille tied the score, 1-1, at 3:51 of the second period by winning a puck in the corner from Janne Niinimaa, keeping it alive behind the King goal, setting a pick to help Glen Murray, then getting the puck behind the goal line and shooting it in off goalie Tommy Salo’s shoulder.

And goal No. 2 came after Craig Johnson won a wrestling match for a puck behind the King goal and moved it out to Laperriere, whose shot was turned back by Salo. Rob Blake’s rebound also was turned back, but Johnson wrestled his way in front of the net and poked in the puck.

But by that time, Edmonton led, 3-2, and Laraque had a role in all three Oiler goals, two by his stick, one by his absence.

His second goal was something that would have won points from an Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling judge. Laraque set up in front of Berg, who was in front of Fiset and the goal. When Roman Hamrlik shot, Laraque deposited Berg in Fiset’s lap and tipped in the puck for his second goal.

“I was looking at the puck and he pushed me,” Berg said.

It was some kind of push.

Doug Weight’s goal made the score 4-2 in a third period that had track-meet qualities, and Garry Galley countered to make it close. But Niinimaa’s open-net goal opened it back up, and Laraque administered the coup de grace to Berg by wrestling past him and backhanding the puck past Fiset.

“It was a dream game,” Laraque said.

It was a nightmare game for Berg and the Kings.