Stanley Cup Playoffs : Flyers, Down 3-0, Rally to Win, 5-3

It certainly makes a better story that the limping, stitched and assailed Philadelphia Flyers overcame a 3-0 deficit to beat the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3, in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final Friday night.

It helps to emphasize the difference between the two teams. On one hand, a manicured hand, you have the Edmonton Oilers--hockey’s sanitized, computerized and sissified team.

Then you have the Flyers--with calloused hands and raw knuckles, their aching bodies bandaged and bruised. People throw shoes out their windows at the Flyers--hockey’s stray cats.

So when the Oilers cruised to a 3-0 lead in the second period, even the Flyers’ never-die tradition seemed little match for the Oilers’ genetically programmed talent.

Something happened to the Flyers after that. They scored five straight goals, two from a once-dormant power play, in a thrilling game that ignited a sellout crowd of 17,222 in the Spectrum.

The Oilers still hold a 2-1 lead in this best-of-seven series. Game 4 is here Sunday night.

“Any team could have laid down and quit, but this team has a lot of character,” said Rick Tocchet, oozing sweat and dripping beer in the jubilant Flyer locker room. “It was close to being in the grave (being down 3-0). Paul Holmgren (Flyer assistant coach) was on the bench and he wouldn’t let us die. He was just screaming. When you’re down 3-0 and still have 38 minutes to play you can’t die in the Stanley Cup playoffs.”

No indeed. In fact the Flyers revived a successful tradition before the game. As the players stood on the ice for the customary playing of the national anthem, the public address announcer introduced an old friend.

On the huge video screens above the ice, the late singer Kate Smith belted out ‘God Bless America,’ the ultimate Flyer good luck charm. When Smith sang at the Flyer games, the team went 55-9-2.

The sound of Smith brought back memories from the Flyers’ two Stanley Cup championship teams. It was like an tonic for the injured underdogs.

“None of us knew they were going to do that,” Peter Zezel said. “I heard her singing and looked up. A lot of us weren’t here when she was signing, but we all know what it means.”

The Flyers worked hard for the win, getting good forchecking from their forwards with defensemen chasing and pestering every Oiler in the vicinity.

After goals by Mark Messier, Paul Coffey and Glenn Anderson, the Oilers appeared to sit back and savor the advantage.

“I always thought the two-goal lead was the worst lead in hockey,” Edmonton Coach Glen Sather said. “But I guess the three-goal is now.”

The game turned on a too-many-men penalty to the Oilers. Sather termed it a questionable call when linesman Kevin Collins ruled that Kent Nilsson stepped on the ice too soon.

“Collins was there and he called it,” Sather said. “I guess he wanted to get his name in the paper. That turned the game around for them.”

Murray Craven batted the puck in on the power play. That sent the crowd into a frenzy and enlivened the dour Philadelphia bench. Suddenly, it was a fight. That is what the Flyers are all about--fighting back.

“A lot of people were probably wondering what we were made of,” Flyer defenseman Brad Marsh said. “We’ve come back before. We came back against Montreal twice in the Forum. The guys said, ‘Keep plugging, keep plugging.’ ”

Peter Zezel’s power-play goal lifted the Flyers even higher. His shot across the crease hit Oiler defenseman Craig Muni’s stick and crawled across the goal line. “I think it was about an inch over the line,” Marsh said.

Craven’s presence on the ice was proof that the Flyers were healing. The left winger had missed 14 playoff games with a broken bone in his left foot. He was still not fully recovered by Friday night’s game, but he was needed.

Craven conducted his post-game interviews while teetering on his right foot.

The high-powered Oiler offense did not mount a significant challenge after the second period. The Flyers were more Oiler-like than the Oilers--skating freely across the ice and bombing Edmonton goaltender Grant Fuhr.

A slap shot from rookie Scott Mellanby beat Fuhr and tied it at 3-3. Then, 17 seconds later, Brad McCrimmon tipped a pass from Mellanby into the net.

Mellanby assumed the role of the injured Tim Kerr-sniping in front of the net. Asked if that he was told to stand there, Mellanby said, “Not really, I just can’t skate very well.”

The Flyers’ Brian Propp scored an empty-net goal with 37 seconds to go, but a confident rejuvenated Philadelphia team didn’t need the goal.

The Flyers stopped--perhaps only temporarily--the inexorable Oiler machine. It was a blow to Edmonton, one that may have revealed more than they cared to show.

“We’re awfully disappointed that, A--we lost the hockey game, and, B--how we lost the hockey game,” Wayne Gretzky said. “We were our own worst enemy tonight. But give them credit, they deserved to win.”

Notes More on the shooting-the-puck into-the-net-at-the-end-of-warmups controversy. Edmonton center Kevin McClelland shot a puck at the Philadelphia net and missed, which brought both boos and laughter raining down on him. McClelland must have been the Oilers’ designated irritant. After a whistle stopped play in the first period, McClelland skated across the Flyer crease and knocked the stick out of goaltender Ron Hextall’s hand . . . The Flyers left no tradition unturned. When the players skated on the ice in the darkened arena, lights shone on down the ice in the familiar shape of the Stanley Cup.