Oilers Have Another Stanley Cup in Sight : Boston Wins a Battle, but Edmonton Is Winning the War, 3 Games to 0

According to a vendor hawking T-shirts outside the Boston Garden Sunday, “Stanley’s back and he’s dressed in black.”

It was a reference to the Boston Bruins, who will need more than wishful thinking to bring the Stanley Cup back to Boston after losing to the Edmonton Oilers, 6-3, Sunday night before a crowd of 14,451.

The victory gave the Oilers a 3-0 lead in the Stanley Cup final.

Another victory in Game 4 Tuesday night at the Garden, where they had won only twice in 14 games, would give the Oilers a sweep of the best-of-seven series and enable them to win the National Hockey League championship for the second straight season and the fourth time in five years.

The Cup, it seems, will be dressed again in orange and blue. Only the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win an NHL title.

“I think we played exactly the way we had to play,” Wayne Gretzky said of the Oilers, who failed this season to win their seventh straight Smythe Division championship, but are 15-2 in the playoffs. “I think we played a tremendous hockey game.”

The Oilers took control of the game midway through the second period after Marty McSorley laid out defenseman Michael Thelven of the Bruins, who was knocked unconscious and had to be carried from the ice.

Much to the consternation of Bruin Coach Terry O’Reilly and the capacity crowd, no penalty was called.

Bruin enforcer Jay Miller then sought his own retribution after play resumed, taking out after the Oilers’ Kevin McClelland.

Both players were assessed five-minute fighting penalties, but referee Andy van Hellemond tacked on an extra two minutes to Miller for roughing.

On the resulting power play, Esa Tikkanen scored the first of his three goals for the Oilers, breaking a 1-1 tie at 10 minutes 25 seconds of the period by deflecting a shot past goaltender Reggie Lemelin.

Only 2:32 later, Anderson scored a goal of his own, taking a pass from Craig Simpson and, with defenseman Ray Bourque attempting to hook him from behind, sliding a shot from the slot through the legs of defenseman Allen Pedersen and past Lemelin, whose career record against the Oilers fell to 6-22-4, including 2-8 in the playoffs.

“I’m not going to criticize Miller, but I think Kevin McClelland was smart enough not to over-react to the situation,” Oiler Coach Glen Sather said. “He let Miller go after him. I think that was the turning point in the game.”

O’Reilly, however, disagreed.

“You guys can slice it and dice it any way you want to,” he told reporters. “You’re talking about a penalty here and a play there. In order for Boston to beat Edmonton, we have to be at the top of our game and get a few breaks from the officials.”

The implication, of course, was that they hadn’t on the play that sent Thelven to Massachusetts General Hospital.

“His head and shoulders came into my mid-section,” McSorley said of the collision. “He was wide open. I don’t think he expected to see me there. I basically held my breath and we collided.”

What followed knocked the wind out of the Bruins.

O’Reilly, though, defended his decision to send Miller back out onto the ice, saying he wasn’t about to back down.

“I thought we had to show more with the physical aspect of the game and not concede,” he said in a terse meeting with the media. “I don’t know. Maybe we should trade places. You guys (reporters) and I should trade places and you should coach. Did I make a mistake putting Jay out on the ice?”

Miller wouldn’t say. He hid out afterward in the trainers’ room, which is off limits to the media.

Glen Wesley, though, defended his teammate’s actions.

“I think something had to be done,” he said. “We’re not going to let another team go and hurt one of our players.”

The Oilers, who have seemingly taken advantage of every Bruin mistake in this series, increased their lead to 4-1 at 1:32 of the third period when Wayne Gretzky, who had four assists, knocked down a clearing pass from Pedersen and fed a quick pass to Tikkanen in front of the net.

“They’ve been doing a heck of a job holding out our forwards, not letting them get into the corners to bump and grind,” Wesley said. “It’s very frustrating that we can’t get into our game.”

It was suggested to Keith Crowder that the Bruins probably don’t want the Oilers to win the Cup on the Bruins’ home ice.

“We don’t want them to win it at all,” he said.

Wishing won’t make it so.