Oilers Even the Score With Playoff-Record 13 Goals Against Kings

After his team had suffered through a 13-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs Thursday night, King Coach Mike Murphy was asked if it had been the longest night of his life.

After some thought, Murphy said that it wasn’t. The 24-hour labor that his wife, Yvonne, experienced before giving birth to the couple’s first son had seemed longer, but not by much.

At least, Murphy can be pleased with the result of that labor. Little was gained from the Kings’ embarrassing loss to the Oilers before a crowd of 17,046 at the Northlands Coliseum.

The Kings were never in the game, and the Oilers never let up. Edmonton’s 13 goals set a National Hockey League playoff record, and Wayne Gretzky equaled his own one-game playoff mark with 7 points.

“We weren’t sharp at all,” Murphy said. “That’s the bottom line--from our centers and forwards on back to our goaltenders.”

It was as shocking a performance as the Kings’ 5-2 win here Wednesday night. Each team has won a game in this best-of-seven series.

In addition to Gretzky’s one goal and six assists, Jari Kurri had four goals and one assist, and Mark Messier had four points.

The Kings countered with two goals by Bernie Nicholls and one by Jim Fox.

Nicholls was one of three players Murphy singled out for excellent play. The others were Fox and rookie defenseman Steve Duchesne.

The rest of the Kings “weren’t sharp at all,” Murphy said.

The Oilers, especially Gretzky, were sharp. With a nine-goal lead in the third period, Oiler Coach Glen Sather elected to use Gretzky on both his regular shifts and the Oiler power play. It has been that strategy that has irked the Kings this season. Often, the Kings have accused the Oilers of running up the score.

The Kings were bombed for six goals in the first period. Their offense could generate nothing, and their defense had reverted to old ways-- hitting no one, failing to clear the puck out of the King zone and making goaltender Rollie Melanson visibly irritable during his brief stay in goal.

“They had seven or eight shots when the net was wide empty, and it wasn’t the goaltenders’ fault,” King forward Bob Bourne said.

Gretzky had three assists in the first period, his first coming on Kurri’s power-play goal at 2:51. Gretzky’s line, dormant Wednesday night, was vigorous Thursday night.

Glenn Anderson scored at 5:17, then Kurri scored off a Gretzky pass to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead

Esa Tikkanen was on the recieving end of Melanson’s frustration. The Oiler raced toward the King net and ended up tumbling inside it. While there, Tikkanen appeared to kick Melanson in the face, which caused Melanson to take a swipe at Tikkanen and shove him out of the crease.

Nicholls’ goal at 10:29 gave the Kings a tiny hope, but Randy Gregg’s goal 20 seconds later took care of that.

Tikkanen scored on a power play to give the Oilers a 5-1 lead, which sent the already-excited crowd into a frenzy. The fans, who had booed the Oilers Wednesday night, recovered their loyalty as their team blew out the Kings.

When Messier’s line raced at the King goal late in the period, the King defensemen didn’t know where to turn.

Neither did Melanson, whose protection had collapsed in the slot. Such was the case for both goaltedners the Kings used Thursday night.

Melanson was pulled after the first period, having allowed 6 goals on 16 shots.

Darren Eliot, his backup, had it just as bad. Edmonton scored three goals in the second period.

“I was hoping that we could be within one or two goals after the first period,” Bourne said. “I knew they would throw everything at us in the first.”

Edmonton had all the chances. The Kings managed only five shots in each of the first and second periods, and four shots in the third. The Kings’ 14 total shots were a record low for them in the playoffs. The Oilers had 45 shots.

“It’s hard to get shots when you don’t have the puck,” Murphy observed.

Messier started the scoring for Edmonton in the second period, a short-handed goal at 3:50. With Messier and Craig MacTavish rushing their net, King defensemen Jay Wells and Grant Ledyard had to backpedal, and Messier and MacTavish passed the puck back and forth before Messier scored.

Nicholls scored again, at 4:29, but that did little to stop the flow.

Kent Nilsson scored the Oilers’ eighth and ninth goals. Fox’s power-play goal at 18:28 gave the Kings a six-goal deficit going into the final period.

Kurri had two goals in the third period, and Gretzky and Moe Lemay had one each.

King Notes The previous record for most goals scored by one team in a playoff game was 11, set by the Montreal Canadiens against Toronto in 1944 and equaled by Edmonton against Chicago in 1985. . . . The Kings were 2 for 3 on the power play, the Oilers 5 for 7. . . . Wayne Gretzky’s first assist Thursday night gave him 177 career points in the playoffs, an NHL record. Gretzky surpassed Jean Beliveau, who had 176. He had seven points in a playoff game twice previously--against Calgary in 1983 and against Winnipeg in ’85. . . . Oiler defenseman Paul Coffey, who injured his shoulder Wednesday night, did not dress for Thursday night’s game. . . . An Edmonton loss is not tolerated here. A headline in Thursday’s Edmonton Sun read: “Just Awful: Oilers ready for slumber party, not playoffs.”