KINGS SHOW NOTHING SPECIAL VS. OILERS STRUGGLE ON POWER PLAY, PENALTY KILL IN LOSS EDMONTON 5, KINGS 3.

Byline: Rich Hammond Staff Writer

The sound of the referee's whistle generally has not been a soothing one for the Kings this season.

A whistle toot often is accompanied by a penalty call, and even though the Kings have put themselves in position for a playoff spot this season, special teams play has prevented them from being better.

The Kings entered Thursday with their power-play and penalty-kill units both ranked 25th out of 30 teams in the NHL, and they played an unusual but important role in the game.

Edmonton scored a power-play goal 34 seconds into the game, and added a third-period shorthanded goal that proved to be the winner in the Oilers' 5-3 victory in front of 18,118 at Staples Center.

Edmonton's Raffi Torres scored an even-strength goal to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead 4:27 into the third period, and then less than two minutes later, with Marty Reasoner in the penalty box, the Oilers had a 2-on-1 chance, in which Ethan Moreau beat Kings goalie Mathieu Garon for a two-goal Oilers advantage.

``Special teams killed us again tonight,'' Kings defenseman Aaron Miller said. ``We just didn't win enough battles and we came up short.''

The night wasn't a total special-teams disaster for the Kings. Craig Conroy scored a second-period shorthanded goal that gave the Kings a 2-1 lead, and Michael Cammalleri scored a third-period power-play goal to cut Edmonton's lead to 4-3, but Todd Harvey added an insurance goal with five minutes left.

In their recent slide - the Kings are 3-6-1 since Jan. 5 - the Kings often have been doomed by untimely and poor penalties. Opponents had more power plays than the Kings in five of the previous six games.

``You can't afford to make mistakes at this time of the year,'' Kings winger Luc Robitaille said, ``because they are going to take advantage and score.''

Just eight seconds into the game, the Oilers went on the power play when Conroy took a hooking penalty.

Edmonton's power play, which is solid but not spectacular, needed only 28 seconds to take advantage.

Chris Pronger fired a slap shot and Garon made a pad save, but no Kings defenders covered the net, and Edmonton's Ryan Smyth did little more than tap the puck into the exposed net.

The Kings took two more penalties in the first period but managed to keep the Oilers off the scoreboard, but didn't fare much better with the man advantage.

A 36-second, 5-on-3 advantage went by without the Kings recording a shot on goal, and seconds later, Garon had to make a save on a 2-on-1 opportunity by the Oilers.

The Kings made up for it just a few minutes later. With Jeff Cowan in the penalty box for holding, the Oilers controlled the puck in the Kings' zone, but the Kings knocked it into the neutral zone.

Chris Pronger, skating back to the Edmonton bench after breaking his stick, was powerless as the puck bounced out to Conroy, who scored on a breakaway to tie the game 7:58 into the second period.

Conroy's goal was the start of a flurry. Just 1:23 later, Luc Robitaille scored an even-strength goal, his seventh goal in his past 11 games, after a bit of quick thinking by teammate Derek Armstrong.

Armstrong went to the net, but with Edmonton's Jason Smith sliding over for a poke-check attempt, Armstrong pushed a backhand pass across to Robitaille, whose wrist shot gave the Kings a 2-1 lead.

But the lead was short-lived, because just more than three minutes later, Edmonton's Radek Dvorak scored on a backhand shot to the top corner of the net to tie the score 2-2 with 8:20 left in the second period.

--Notes: If all goes to plan, the Kings could soon be at full strength, not counting Ryan Flinn (concussion), who himself was an injury replacement, and Valeri Bure (back, hip), who hasn't played a game this season. Aaron Miller, out since Dec. 21 with a bad back, played in Thursday night's game against Edmonton. Eric Belanger, out since Dec. 29 with a slight groin tear, likely will return Saturday and Jeremy Roenick, out since Dec. 19 with a broken finger, might be back in the lineup by late next week. Even Pavol Demitra, who has been out since Jan. 5 with a deep leg bruise and seemed to be making little progress for quite a while, could return to the lineup next week.

Rich Hammond, [phone]

rich.hammond(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) The Kings' Alexander Frolov looks to pass while being trailed by Edmonton's Jason Smith during the first period Thursday.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer