Oilers at Last Can Celebrate : Flyers Are Subdued, 3-1, in Seventh Game

In the end, there were no more miracles for the Philadelphia Flyers. No more fabulous finishes. The Flyers, underdogs from the very start, ran and ran after the Edmonton Oilers Sunday night, but they never caught them.

The Oilers, regaining the form that had brought them to the Stanley Cup finals, shook off the failures and breakdowns that had caused them to go into Sunday’s game with the series tied at 3-3.

In front of a delirious sellout crowd of 17,502 in the Northlands Coliseum, Edmonton made up for the disappointment of a season ago, finally beating Philadelphia, 3-1, in the seventh and last game of the series to win the NHL championship.

It is the Oilers’ third Stanley Cup victory in four years. The win was as joyous for the Oilers as it was devastating for the Flyers. Philadelphia had come from behind in the three games it had won to force the first seven-game series in 16 years.

“This is the hardest Cup we’ve ever won,” said Edmonton’s Wayne Gretzky, who assisted on Jari Kurri’s winning goal. “We were up 3-1 with these guys and everyone is saying ‘When’s the parade, when’s everybody partying?’ All of a sudden it’s 3-3 and we go from heroes--maybe the best team ever--to maybe goats. Everybody rebounded, came back and played the game of their lives.”

The game-breaking goal was scored by Glenn Anderson. The Oilers had a precarious 2-1 lead late in the third period, but were all to aware of the Flyers’ ability to fight back.

Anderson’s straight-on shot flew between Flyer goaltender Ron Hextall’s legs. It was the 41st shot Hextall faced Sunday night, and his most agonizing lapse. As the Edmonton bench erupted after the goal, Hextall sank to his knees and pounded his glove on the ice.

For his remarkable work, Hextall was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs. It was only the fourth time in the 22 years of the trophy that a player from the losing team has won the award.

Hextall’s failure to come up with another brilliant save on Anderson’s shot meant the Flyers’ had to score two goals in the last 2 1/2 minutes of the game. It was too much to expect.

Hextall, a hot-tempered rookie goaltender, had nearly manufactured all of Philadelphia’s miracles.

“He gives so much, the more you give, the more bitter the pill,” Glenn (Chico) Resch, the Flyer backup goaltender said. “He was a dreamer. He thought that he could win it for us. No matter what happened, I think he always thought he could do something to get us out of it.”

The Flyers could do nothing to counteract the Oilers’ furious forechecking or stop their relentless net rushes. Edmonton had 43 shots on goal to Philadelphia’s 20. The Flyers had only two shots in the third period.

“I’m happy as hell with the Oilers now, I’ll tell you that,” said Edmonton Coach Glen Sather. “You can’t beat a hockey club like Philadelphia unless you’re a great hockey team.”

The chaos in the Oiler dressing room gave some indication of how much the Oilers yearned to regain the Cup. After winning in 1984 and 1985, the Oilers couldn’t get past the Smythe Division final last season.

“It is wonderful,” said Oiler goaltender Grant Fuhr, drenched in champagne and searching for ways to express his joy. “I mean, at the start of the year, people doubted us. Now we’re here and we won it.”

They won it in a fashion that the Flyers had perfected--hard work, hard hitting and discipline.

Also by coming back from a one-goal deficit. The Flyers accomplished in the first period what they had not done in any game in the final; they scored first.

Philadelphia got a power play with only 34 seconds gone in the game, when Mark Messier was called for cross checking. When Paul Coffey was called for holding 38 seconds later, the Flyers had a two-man advantage for 1 minute 21 seconds.

It took Philadelphia only 20 seconds to score on the 5-on-3. Pelle Eklund slid a pass to Murray Craven. Craven threw the puck across the crease, apparently trying to get it to Brian Propp.

Fuhr had trouble handling the puck and knocked it in himself.

The Oilers tied it at 7:45, on one of their patented pass-pass rushes. Glenn Anderson, who seems to shoot better when one foot is off the ice, went around Flyer winger Lindsay Carson and drew defenseman Mark Howe to him.

While off balance, Anderson faked a shot and passed to Kent Nilsson on the left side. Nilsson gave it back to Messier, who had open net on the right side.

The game was wide open after that. There were several scoring chances for both teams. The Oilers shots seemed to hit the goal post with regularity.

Fuhr made a big save in the first period. He gloved a Propp slap shot, but dropped the puck behind him and, as it scooted toward the goal line, Marty McSorley swept the puck clear.

At the other end of the ice, the Oilers were running at Hextall. Craig MacTavish knocked Hextall over, Anderson ran flat into him and Messier raced through the crease and bumped the Flyer goaltender.

Messier had the next-best scoring chance. His shot ran along the crossbar and flipped off. The Oilers celebrated, their goal-scoring song played on the public address system, but no goal was called.

The Oilers scored the only goal of the second period. Kurri took a pass from Gretzky and put a wrist shot high to Hextall’s glove side.

“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Kurri said. “I’m going to remember this for a long time. It was the toughest and most enjoyable series. It was the best hockey.”

In contrast to the jubilation in the Edmonton locker room, the Philadelphia room was subdued. Theirs had been the longest road to the Cup. Philadelphia has played 26 games in the playoffs and much of those with injuries to key players.

The Flyers’ quest to win their third Cup ended 235 days after the season began.

For Hextall, who sat slumped in front of his locker after the game, staring at the floor but answering questions from wave after wave of reporters, the loss almost too much to take.

“It’s an empty feeling,” he said. “We’ve come so far and worked so hard. I don’t know. We don’t have as talented a team as Edmonton does, but I’ll tell you, we sure have a lot of guts.”