Gretzky Breaks Ice in Edmonton, Kings Win, 6-3

Wayne Gretzky had not scored a goal against the Edmonton Oilers in more than 10 years, not since his days as an Indianapolis Racer, when the Racers and the Oilers were World Hockey Assn. teams. Since being traded from the Oilers to the Kings? Not one goal. Not one in five games. Not until Sunday night.

In front of a sellout crowd of 17,503 in the Northlands Coliseum, Gretzky had a goal and an assist as the Kings beat the Oilers, 6-3, to pull into a tie for second place in the Smythe Division. The Kings are 36-28-6 with 78 points. The Oilers are 35-29-8 with 78 points.

The victory guaranteed the Kings a playoff berth, no doubt against the Oilers in the first round. But whether the Oilers will have home ice for the seven-game series or whether the Kings will have home ice remains to be determined in the last 10 games of the regular season--and the Kings will play the Oilers twice more.

The Kings came into the game with only one victory in five games against the Oilers this season, and the one victory was in the Forum. In games played on his old familiar ice, Gretzky had been mostly ineffective. The last time out he didn’t even have a shot on goal.

It was beginning to look as if The Great One had a great big mental block playing against the Oilers at Edmonton.

Not a comforting thought considering what a key hurdle Edmonton poses to the Kings’ high playoff hopes. It did not bode well for the Kings.

But Sunday, any doubts that Gretzky would ever be able to get his game going against the team he had led to four Stanley Cups were laid to rest.

“I never had any doubts,” Gretzky said. “That was in everyone else’s imagination. But I’m glad to get the goal. I’m glad to get that behind me so that everyone else can stop talking about it and worrying about it.”

When Gretzky scored on his good friend Grant Fuhr to give the Kings a 5-2 lead, there was a lot of relief by the Kings.

“We need him so bad in the playoffs, we didn’t want to go into a series with Edmonton wondering if there was something to that,” Bernie Nicholls said. “What a beautiful goal, too. I don’t know if there was a bigger sigh on the bench, or from Gretz, or from (owner) Bruce McNall back home.”

Just as important as the Gretzky goal was the Kings’ victory here. After going winless (0-6-1) in their last seven games at Edmonton, the Kings needed to prove to themselves that they could win here.

To do that, they needed to get Gretzky’s shadow, Esa Tikkanen, to back off a little and give Gretzky some room to work.

“I think maybe we did a better job of picking him this time,” Mike Krushelnyski said. “All Gretz needs is that one step and then it’s ‘See you later.’ You’re not going to catch him then.”

The Oilers had the disadvantage of having played Saturday night in another important, emotional game. The Oilers played the Calgary Flames, the leader in the Smythe Division, and the Edmonton’s Alberta rival.

So, the Oilers were tired from a tough 5-5 tie.

“We watched the game last night, and that was really a high intensity game,” Krushelnyski said. “It was up and back, up and back all night. We knew that would be to our advantage.”

Krushelnyski, also a former Oiler, had no trouble scoring against his former teammates--with a little help from Gretzky. Krushelnyski had made it 4-2, after skating up the left side and taking a pass from Gretzky, who was on the right side, then beating Fuhr on a sharp angle almost parallel to the goal.

“Gretz probably could have taken that shot himself,” Krushelnyski said. “He was out in front. When he made the pass to me, I was just trying to get it on the net. If it goes in, all the better.”

John Tonelli had started the Kings’ spurt of three straight goals in the third period with a goal 34 seconds into the period. Tonelli took a pass from Steve Kasper and fired a short shot into the left corner of the net.

With three goals in fewer than seven minutes, the Kings broke open a close game.

The game was tied, 1-1, after the first period and, 2-2, after the second period.

Ken Baumgartner was the unlikely fellow who started the scoring for the Kings, getting his first goal of the season at 5:18 on a slap shot from just inside the blue line that took Fuhr--and everyone else--by surprise.

Craig Simpson tied it for the Oilers at 11:05, scoring with 17 seconds left on the Oiler power play brought on by a holding penalty on Nicholls.

Luc Robitaille put the Kings up, again, 1:18 into the second period, when he knocked the bouncing rebound of a shot by Steve Duchesne out of the air and into the back of the net.

Robitaille also scored on a slap shot as he skated through the right faceoff circle minutes later, but the red light was turned off when it was determined that the whistle for a roughing penalty on Nicholls had beaten the shot.

Jari Kurri was able to tie it again when he slapped a shot from the left faceoff circle after a couple of passes had King goalie Kelly Hrudey caught in transition.

Gretzky, who was held without a shot in the first period, had four shots in the second period as he warmed up for the Kings’ big push in the third.

Kings Notes

The Kings will be back here to play the Oilers a week from Tuesday (March 21) and will play them for the last time in the regular season the next Saturday (March 25) in the Forum. . . . Defenseman Tim Watters suffered a bruised calf toward the end of the game Sunday and had to be helped from the ice. . . . Ken Baumgartner scored his first goal of the season on the day after his birthday. He was 23 Saturday. A couple of days earlier, when Bernie Nicholls had set the Kings’ single season record with his 60th goal, Baumgartner had joked, “Way to go, Bernie. Now we have 60 goals between us.” So Sunday night, Nicholls said: “Way to go Baumer, now we have 62 between us.”