(My Sportsbook) - If the Oilers thought they were going to be able to carry the momentum of Tommy Salo's brilliant performance on Friday into Saturday's contest against the Los Angeles Kings, they were completely mistaken.

One night after Salo stopped 29 shots for his first shutout of the season and gave Edmonton back-to-back wins for the first time all year, the Oilers were crowned 4-1 by the Kings on their home ice.

Edmonton, however, started strong and jumped out to a 1-0 lead on Janne Niinimaa's fourth goal of the year.

"We were right where we wanted to be," said Niinimaa. "We were at home. Got the first goal. Had some chances to make it 2-0. Somehow, little by little, we let it slip away. I don't think L.A. did anything special to us."

You could have turned your television sets off from there though, as the Kings tallied four unanswered goals and prevented the Oilers from reaching the .500 mark (6-8-3-1).

"The momentum of the game went over midway through the first period and we had trouble getting it back," said Todd Marchant. "We couldn't sustain any sort of forecheck pressure against them and that seemed to be the difference. In the third period we kind of ran out of gas."

Sure, this was Edmonton's sixth game in nine days, but keep in mind its opponent was playing the sixth game of an eight-game road trip and was without stars Jason Allison and Adam Deadmarsh.

"It looked early on in the game like it was going to be another easy night for us, but it dried up in a hurry," said head coach Craig MacTavish. "We had five shots in the first seven or eight minutes of the period, we got the goal, and it looked like the same (St. Louis) scenario was playing itself out."

The Oilers, who pounded the Blues 5-0 on Friday, were able to muster just 18 shots on LA netminder Felix Potvin.

"We can only blame ourselves," Niinimaa added. "We didn't do the things we were supposed to do."

WHAT'S AHEAD

The Oilers will close out its three-game homestand on Tuesday against the Chicago Blackhawks before traveling to Calgary for a game on Thursday.