Fogolin’s Goal Catches Even Him by Surprise

The puck was standing on edge on a shelf above Lee Fogolin’s locker at the Northlands Coliseum late Wednesday night. It isn’t often that Fogolin gets to keep a puck after a game, so he wanted it displayed prominently.

“I’ve only been given the game puck twice in my 11-year career,” Fogolin said. “I got it on my first NHL goal when I was a rookie with Buffalo (1973-74), and the one you see right above me.”

You didn’t have to ask Fogolin which was more memorable. His goal at 3:01 of sudden-death overtime Wednesday night gave the defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers a 3-2 win over the Kings in Game 1 of their best-of-five playoff series.

To say that Fogolin’s goal was unexpected is a big understatement. On a team that holds the single-season record for goals and offers the prolific scoring of Wayne Gretzky, Fogolin, 30, is perhaps the only true Oiler defensive defenseman.

Fogolin is slow and plodding, but one of the few players who usually stays back and protects goaltender Grant Fuhr. Of the 401 goals the Oilers scored this season, Fogolin contributed only four.

But when he strayed into the offensive zone with the puck almost three minutes into overtime Wednesday, Fogolin said he simply wanted to shoot the puck in the general vicinity of the net. So he maneuvered around King defenseman Brian Engblom and fired a relatively weak wrist shot.

“The next thing I know, the puck is in the net and the red light is on,” Fogolin said.

Just to make sure, Fogolin skated toward the net for a closer look. He made it only a few feet before being swarmed by his teammates. The first player to hurtle over the boards was Gretzky, who headed straight for the net to retrieve the puck. Then, he handed it to Fogolin.

“He looked so surprised,” Gretzky said. “It’s nice to see a guy like Lee get some credit after putting in six years with this team and not getting much recognition. When you win a Stanley Cup, it takes 21 people. Lee has been a very important part.”

Indeed, Fogolin has been important, but usually only in the defensive end. Before Wednesday night, he had scored only two playoff goals in his 11-year career. One came in the 1981-82 playoff series against the Kings, and the other came last season.

Fogolin, embarrassed by questions about his lack of goal-scoring prowess, said he couldn’t remember either goal. Asked if he ever scored a game-winning goal in overtime, Fogolin smiled and said: “I think I had one in pee-wee league once, the championship game. I really don’t know. . . . I can’t remember any goal I’ve scored in the last three years.”

That’s understandable, since Fogolin has scored only nine in that span. but what makes Fogolin valuable to the Oilers is that he knows his role.

“When I go out on the ice, I just try to do what I do best,” he said. “That’s obviously not scoring goals. It’s to stop the other team. But if the puck happens to go in when I shoot it, great. It’s strange how fluky goals win games. Ken Morrow (a defensive defenseman for the Islanders) has scored a couple to beat us in the playoffs. How do you explain it?”

After he let it all sink in, Fogolin was finally able and willing to explain what happened on the play--although it was still a bit fuzzy in his mind

“After the third period, we went back into the locker room and said that we should keep shooting the puck at the net and force Janecyk to play it. We know that King defensemen like to sag in the middle, so I went around (Engblom) and shot it. It was a difficult angle, but I think it hit (Janecyk’s) stick.”

Somehow, it figured that on a night when Gretzky was successfully shadowed by King forward Phil Sykes, and Jari Kurri and Mark Messier were mostly shooting blanks, defensemen would score two of the three Oiler goals. Paul Coffey gave Edmonton a 2-1 lead at 13:19 of the second period with a length-of-the-ice foray.

Everyone expects Coffey, who finished fifth overall in the NHL in scoring with 121 points, to score.

But Lee Fogolin?

“I’m still shocked,” Fogolin said. “The last time they gave me the puck, I scored the goal against the (now-defunct) California Golden Seals. That shows you how long it’s been.”