NHL Roundup : Oilers Managing Just Fine Without Gretzky

It took the Edmonton Oilers a long time to get over the shock of the Wayne Gretzky trade, but fortunately they had time to recover before the season began.

Naturally, the Oilers vowed to show the hockey world, that they could win without Gretzky.

So far, they are proving they can do it.

Defenseman Kevin Lowe fired the puck through a maze of players with 55 seconds remaining at Edmonton to give the Oilers a 5-4 victory over the Winnipeg Jets. The Stanley Cup champions are now 2-0.

Lowe’s goal, from a sharp angle, came just 1:42 after Brent Ashton, capitalizing on a costly giveaway to tie the game.

The Jets jumped in front with 3 goals in the first 16 minutes. Without Gretzky to rally them, it was up to veterans Mark Messier and Jari Kurri to do the job. Messier assisted on 4 goals, including Lowe’s winner.

“We really had a difficult time forgetting how important Wayne was,” Messier said. “We watched him playing for the Kings on television in their opener. Watching him brought back so many memories, some as recent as last spring. Of course, we were all hurt by the trade. We knew it could happen, but we just found it hard to believe.”

Boston 3, Hartford 1--Defenseman Ray Bourque, the key player in the Bruins’ bid to win the Stanley Cup, scored his first 2 goals of the season in this game at Boston to lead them to their third win in a row.

Bourque set up 3 goals Saturday night when the Bruins won at Hartford. The consecutive losses left the Whalers 0-3 to start the season.

Last season when they barely made the playoffs, the Whalers opened by losing their first five.

Philadelphia 4, Buffalo 3--Paul Holmgren is a perfect 2-0 as a coach, but the Flyers had to make an amazing rally to win this one.

The Sabres, with Darren Puppa doing an outstanding job in the nets, led most of the game. But with just 30 seconds left in regulation, Peter Zezel tipped in Mark Howe’s blast from the point to send it into a 5-minute extra session.

Halfway through it, Ron Sutter, who scored the Flyers’ first goal, picked up a loose puck in a scramble in front of the net and slapped the puck between Puppa’s pads.

Holmgren thought sure he was about to lose for the first time.

“The job their goaltender was doing made me feel after 2 periods we were going to lose,” Holmgren said. “It didn’t look good up to the last 30 seconds.”

Quebec 4, Minnesota 1--With the loss of veteran Michel Goulet because of injury, the Nordiques have had to find out early what their young forwards can do.

Rookie Joe Sakic scored twice and Iiro Jarvi scored his first NHL goal as the Noridques handed the hapless North Stars their third loss in a row in this game at Quebec.

Minnesota had only 6 shots on goal in the first period, and didn’t score on goalie Mario Brunetta until the third period after the Nordiques built a 3-0 lead.

Just 24 hours earlier, the Nordiques, in their home opener, had played a dismal game and been hammered by Washington, 6-2. The Nordiques jumped in front of the Capitals, 2-0, then collapsed.

This time they didn’t.

“Tonight we didn’t cave in,” Nordiques Coach Ron Lapointe said. “We kept pressing instead of sitting back and we didn’t make last night as a result.”

Toronto 8, Chicago 4--Gary Leeman scored 2 goals and had 3 assists to as the Maple Leafs won at Chicago after beating the Blackhawks at Toronto the night before.

Vincent Damphousse also had 2 goals for Toronto, including the team’s third power-play score midway through the final period.