Kings Repay Oilers for Embarrassment With a 6-1 Victory

EDMONTON, Canada — Hockey players have learned what football players, boxers and race drivers knew all along: Fear is the greatest of motivators.

It is often fear of physical pain, or a broken body, that spurs athletes to perform at higher levels. Wednesday night, the fear of embarrassment served to pump adrenaline through the Kings’ veins.

It was a powerful tonic. The Kings, coming off their worst loss of the National Hockey League season at home against Edmonton last Saturday night, gave the Oilers their worst loss of the season, 6-1, before a crowd of 17,317 in a subdued Northlands Coliseum.

Nearly visible over the Kings was the specter of the 8-1 thrashing the Oilers gave them at the Forum. No professional athlete enjoys such humiliation, and, though the Kings are more familiar with the feeling than many, they like it no more than anyone else.

“We came up here fearful of the number of goals they are capable of scoring; it was a fear of being embarrassed,” King Coach Pat Quinn said.

The Kings (18-19-4) have seen firsthand what Edmonton, the league’s top offensive team, can do. The Oilers had scored 23 goals against the Kings in four previous games this season.

“I know fear of embarrassment had a lot to do with our preparation today,” Quinn said of the team practice Wednesday morning. “But (fear) can petrify you. It can take hold of you. We used it positively. Fear can be a positive motivator.”

On the other hand, the Oilers (25-13-2) seemed to have little to motivate them. Their lethargic play, coupled with brilliant goaltending by the Kings’ Rollie Melanson, who made 28 saves, placed the Oilers in a hole from which even Wayne Gretzky could not pull them. Gretzky was held to one assist.

The Kings’ three goals in the first period would have been viewed as an ample cushion against any other team, but against the Oilers, a high-scoring first period must be just a preview.

The Kings know better than to let up against Edmonton. They had a 3-0 lead after the first period Nov. 2, then saw the Oilers score five goals in the second period of an eventual 5-5 tie.

Then there was the Dec. 20 game in which the Kings made up a 7-4 deficit and tied the Oilers, 8-8. It was in that game, King players had noted, that the Oilers were making derisive comments. “They were laughing at us,” Marcel Dionne said.

The laughs emanated from another source Wednesday night.

After allowing goals by King rookie Luc Robitaille (his 24th of the season) and Dave Taylor in the first 11 minutes 24 seconds of the first period, Edmonton goaltender Andy Moog sank to his lowest skill level. King defenseman Grant Ledyard flipped a shot that Moog caught in his glove, then bobbled and allowed to fall into the Oiler net at 19:16. It was Ledyard’s first goal in 11 games.

“I think that third goal, a cheapie, hurt them a little,” Quinn said.

It hurt Moog most. To no one’s great surprise, the Oilers yanked the goalie and replaced him with Grant Fuhr in the second period. Fuhr allowed as many goals in the next two periods as his teammate had in the first and faced four fewer shots.

While Melanson was protecting the lead, weathering his fourth and fifth power plays of the night without allowing a goal, the Kings were busy at the other end of the ice. Jimmy Carson scored off a Morris Lukowich pass at 7:09 of the second period to give the Kings a 4-0 lead.

The Kings scored again in the second period, on defenseman Mark Hardy’s slap shot from the right point at 14:05. It was untouched by Fuhr and possibly unseen.

For Hardy, who had missed six games with pulled muscles on his left side, the goal was his first in eight games. It also gave the Kings a 5-0 lead, their largest of the season, although the lead was short-lived. Jari Kurri scored at 16:11 to finally get the Oilers on the scoreboard.

It was a weak response, however, to the King onslaught. The Kings reveled in it, knowing, too, that Edmonton has the ability to make up ground like no other team.

“We were just hoping the Oilers weren’t going to score half a dozen goals on us right away,” Taylor said.

The Oilers didn’t, failing to score on all seven of their power-play opportunities in the game, while the Kings were 3 of 6.

The Kings’ Dave (Tiger) Williams scored at 17:20 of the third period to end the scoring and leave the Kings two points behind third-place Winnipeg in the Smythe Division.

King Notes The Kings will play the Calgary Flames tonight at the Saddledome. The Kings are 2-2 against the Flames (23-16-1), the second-place team behind Edmonton in the Smythe Division. . . . King goaltender Rollie Melanson got an assist, his first point of the year, on Mark Hardy’s second-period goal. It was Melanson’s fifth consecutive win. He has a 1.77 goals-against average in those five games.