Edmonton Has Share of All-Stars

With five players in the starting lineup for the Campbell Conference, the Edmonton Oilers will be the dominant team at Tuesday night’s National Hockey League All-Star Game.

The Oilers, led by superstar center Wayne Gretzky, have a total of nine players on the Campbell team for the annual game against the Wales Conference, at the Hartford Civic Arena.

“We are flattered to have so many starters on the All-Star team,” said Glen Sather, coach of the two-time Stanley Cup champions. “I guess our television exposure over the past few years has helped make our players more recognizable.”

Led by defenseman Paul Coffey, the top vote-getter in first-year balloting by fans, the Oilers will have a starter at every position except one, that being filled by Chicago Black Hawks defenseman Doug Wilson.

In addition Coffey and Gretzky, the other Oilers’ starters are left wing Glenn Anderson, right wing Jari Kurri and goaltender Grant Fuhr.

Coffey surprisingly outpolled Gretzky, 309,503 votes to 266,470, in his runaway victory as a starting defenseman.

“We are most pleased with our initial year of fan balloting,” NHL President John Ziegler said. “The fans enjoyed it, the players enjoyed it, and the result was considerable for the NHL All-Star Game and hockey.”

The Wales Conference is more diversified, though the Philadelphia Flyers are represented by five players, not all starters.

In the Wales, the No. 1 vote-getter at goaltender was the late Pelle Lindbergh of the Flyers, who died in November following a car crash. The popular Swede will be replaced in goal by the Quebec Nordiques’ Mario Gosselin, runner-up in the voting.

On defense, the Wales’ starting lineup will feature Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins, the top vote-getter in the conference with 193,119 ballots, and Washington Capitals’ captain Rod Langway.

Up front, Pittsburgh center Mario Lemieux will skate between Quebec left wing Michel Goulet and Flyers’ right wing Tim Kerr.

The rest of the Campbell Conference team on the 20-man squad includes centers Neal Broten of Minnesota, Dale Hawerchuk of Winnipeg and Denis Savard of Chicago; wings Mark Hunter of St. Louis, Mark Messier of Edmonton, John Ogrodnick of Detroit, Tony Tanti of Vancouver and Dave Taylor of Los Angeles; defensemen Wendel Clark of Toronto, Lee Fogolin and Kevin Lowe of Edmonton, Rob Ramage of St. Louis, and Gary Suter of Calgary; and goaltender Andy Moog of Edmonton.

The remainder of the Wales team features Kirk Muller of New Jersey, Dave Poulin of Philadelphia, Peter Stastny of Quebec and Bryan Trottier of the New York Islanders at center. Wings include Mike Bossy of the Islanders, Mike Gartner of Washington, Mats Naslund of Montreal, Brian Propp of Philadelphia and Sylvain Turgeon of Hartford.

Among the other defensemen are Mark Howe of Philadelphia, Mike Ramsey of Buffalo, Larry Robinson of Montreal and Reijo Ruotsalainen of the New York Rangers.

Goaltender Bob Froese of Philadelphia fills out the Wales squad, which hopes to continue its domination of the game--now in its 38th year. In the past 10 games, since the squads have been designated Wales and Campbell, Wales leads the series 8-2.