NHL Roundup : Gretzky, Oilers Snuff Flames, 6-3

Wayne Gretzky, at the halfway point of the season, has almost clinched his seventh consecutive scoring title.

The fabulous young center, who has broken almost all NHL offensive records in his seven seasons, scored a goal and assisted on two others Sunday night at Edmonton to lead the Oilers to a 6-3 victory over hapless Calgary.

The Oilers, hoping to pick up an extra $200,000 by posting the best overall record, improved to 29-7-4 by handing the Flames their 10th defeat in a row. A year ago when they were on their way to a second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, the Oilers were 28-8-4.

While the Oilers are one game better off at the halfway point, Gretzky, who will be 25 late this month, is not doing quite as well.

Gretzky had 208 points and a record 135 assists last season. At this point he had 42 goals and 73 assists for 115 points.

His 28th goal and both assists came in the first period to help the Oilers build a 4-1 lead. In addition to his 28 goals, he has 75 assists for 103 points. Barring injury, he figures to exceed 200 points for the fourth time in the last five seasons.

His lead in the scoring race is 35 points over Mats Naslund, the scoring star of the Montreal Canadiens. Gretzky would have to miss most of the rest of the season to lose the scoring title.

“We had a little slump last month,” Gretzky said. “But we are beginning to play well again. I’m surprised to learn we have a better record than we had a year ago. I feel our best hockey is yet to come.”

Gretzky’s second assist, at 10:41 of the first period set up Glenn Anderson for his 25th goal of the season. It was Anderson’s first game since sitting out an eight-game suspension.

After taking the big lead, the Oilers put most of the burden on goaltender Grant Fuhr the rest of the night. Fuhr faced 44 shots in the game, 19 of them in the last period when he gave up Calgary’s last two goals.

Chicago 6, Minnesota 2--Steve Larmer and Denis Savard scored goals a minute apart in the third period at Chicago to break open a close game and give the Black Hawks their fifth victory in a row.

The North Stars, who had won five NHL games in a row and played the powerful Red Army team tough Saturday night, played the Hawks to a 2-2 tie through two periods. But they collapsed in the last period and were blown out early.

There were four fights and Minnesota goalie Don Beaupre, who faced 47 shots, was ejected for slashing with four minutes remaining.

Detroit 6, Toronto 5--Petr Klima, who earlier assisted on three goals, scored with six minutes left at Toronto to give the Red Wings their first victory under new Coach Brad Park.

In their first two games under Park, the Red Wings, winners of only two of their last 15 games, had a loss and a tie.

The Red Wings, with Joe Kocur scoring twice, carried a 5-3 lead into the final period. But Tom Fergus and Peter Ihnacak scored 22 seconds apart to tie it.

Quebec 5, New York Rangers 4--It was two different games at New York. The Nordiques completely dominated the first half of the game, then barely hung on for the victory.

Michel Goulet scored his 30th goal to spark the fast start of the Nordiques, who held the Rangers to five shots while building a 2-0 lead in the first period. When the Nordiques scored on the first two shots of the second period, goaltender John Vanbiesbrouck was replaced by Glen Hanlon. A power-play score by David Shaw, 10 minutes after Hanlon entered the game, gave Quebec a 5-0 lead.

The Rangers didn’t score until Tom Laidlaw scored a short-handed goal four minutes into the last period. The Rangers, who had 30 shots in the last 30 minutes, scored their fourth goal with 1:19 left, but couldn’t get the tying score.

Winnipeg 4, Vancouver 0--The Jets scored twice before the game was two minutes old at Winnipeg and goaltender Dan Bouchard breezed to the 26th shutout of his career.

Bouchard only had to stop 20 shots and most of them were from far out on the ice. The Canucks, in losing their fourth in a row, seemed disorganized.

The Jets, who would have dropped into a tie with the Kings for last place in the Smythe Division with a loss, came out firing. Doug Smail scored in the first minute and Scott Arniel scored in the second minute.