Moog to Face Former Teammates Tonight : Bruin Goalie Has Score to Settle in Game 1 of Final Stanley Cup Series

Andy Moog, who played for three National Hockey League championship teams in Edmonton but couldn’t find happiness, is back this week, looking for redemption.

In a surprise move by Coach Terry O’Reilly, Moog was named to start in goal against his former teammates tonight when the Boston Bruins play the Edmonton Oilers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals at the Northlands Coliseum.

The Bruins’ Rejean Lemelin has been the NHL’s most effective goaltender in the playoffs, compiling the league’s best goals-against average, 2.45, and save percentage, .901, while leading the Bruins into the finals for the first time since 1978.

O’Reilly, though, apparently is looking for a psychological edge against the favored Oilers, who are seeking their second straight championship and fourth in five years.

“Reg has been on a roll,” Moog said. “But Terry’s got something in mind by starting me, that’s for sure.”

Whatever it might be, O’Reilly wouldn’t tell reporters.

“It’s something I don’t want to discuss until after the game,” he said.

O’Reilly, in fact, said it wasn’t official that Moog will start.

Both goaltenders, however, said they had been told by O’Reilly that Moog will be in the nets for tonight’s game. Moog’s relief appearance last week in Game 6 of the Wales Conference finals against the New Jersey Devils represents his only playing time in the Bruins’ last 11 games.

“Terry feels that Andy might have been mistreated by the Oilers and that he might be so motivated that he might play so well that we could come in here and steal a game from the Oilers,” Lemelin said.

Lemelin’s record of 6-20-4 against the Oilers might also have influenced O’Reilly’s thinking.

Whatever the reason for it, this is the latest twist in a strange season for Moog, who spent parts of seven seasons with the Oilers before concluding last summer that he no longer wanted to play a supporting role to Grant Fuhr.

Moog, 28, asked to be traded, and when the Oilers failed to grant his request, he left to join the Canadian Olympic team. Once there, though, he again found himself in a supporting role, this time to Sean Burke.

Then, in a March trade that brought left wing Geoff Courtnall and goaltender Bill Ranford to the Oilers, Moog was sent to Boston.

Once again, he finds himself in a backup role.

Lemelin’s playoff record is 11-4. Moog’s is 1-2, and his 4.26 goals-against average is almost 2 goals higher than Lemelin’s. Moog hasn’t started since he lost Game 1 of the Adams Division finals against the Montreal Canadiens.

Still, Moog said he feels more appreciated in Boston than he did in Edmonton, where he mostly split time with Fuhr during the regular season before taking a place on the bench in the playoffs.

Though he won three championship rings in Edmonton, Moog didn’t play during the finals in 1985 or 1987, when the Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers. He started the last two games of the 1984 finals against the New York Islanders only after Fuhr separated his shoulder.

So, after the Bruins had eliminated the Devils last Saturday night to advance to the finals, Moog said: “This isn’t the same as it was in Edmonton. This is a 20-guys effort. Everyone feels they’ve had a hand in winning.”

Obviously, Moog didn’t get that feeling with the Oilers.

Glen Sather, the Oilers’ coach and general manager, told reporters recently that he knew on the morning of the seventh game of last year’s finals that he would have a problem with Moog. The Oilers had lost two straight games, but Sather nevertheless started Fuhr again in Game 7.

“I knew (then) what was going to be ahead with Andy,” Sather told the Edmonton Sun.

Moog stewed all summer.

Last fall, he asked to be traded.

“I didn’t think I was being challenged and I didn’t think I was developing as a player,” he said. “I had to let everyone know that it was time that I got to be moving on. I wouldn’t have been any help to the team, and I sure wouldn’t have been any help to myself.”

Moog seems to keep winding up in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that’s not the way he sees it.

“I’m back in the finals again,” he said.

And now he’s facing the most important game of his career.

“I’d say it’s at least in the top five,” he said.

Stanley Cup Notes

The Bruins and the New York Islanders are the only National Hockey League teams that have winning records against the Oilers, who joined the NHL for the 1979-80 season. The Bruins are 16-9-4 against the Oilers, including a 10-2-2 record at Boston Garden. The teams split two games at Edmonton this season and played to a 2-2 tie at Boston. The Oilers are 12-2 in the playoffs, including an 8-0 record at Edmonton. . . . Said Oiler co-coach John Muckler: “I think this Oiler team has played better (in the playoffs) than any team we’ve had. We’re better defensively, we’re just as good offensively and we still have (goaltender) Grant Fuhr.”

The Bruins are 12-6 in the playoffs, including an 8-1 record at Boston. . . . The Oilers’ Mark Messier, Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri rank 1, 2 and 3 in playoff scoring. Kurri has 13 goals. Messier and Gretzky each have 21 assists. . . . Ray Bourque of the Bruins is the leading scorer among the league’s defensemen with 18 points, including 15 assists. The Bruins’ leading scorer is former Oiler Ken Linseman, who has 9 goals and 12 assists. Other former Oilers are the Bruins’ Andy Moog and Moe Lemay. . . . Ex-Bruins playing for Edmonton include Craig MacTavish, Mike Krushelnyski, Bill Ranford and Geoff Courtnall. . . . Winning the series will be worth $25,000 to each player. The losers will each get $18,000. . . . Rejean Lemelin’s career record against the Oilers includes a 5-19-3 mark when he played for the Calgary Flames, including 2-6 in the playoffs.