Jets No Bye, but They Are 5-3 Losers to Kings : Hockey: Gretzky denies making quote that belittled Winnipeg. Berthiaume, sharp in goal, is quick to leave.

It should have been a carefree King clubhouse Sunday after the team beat the Winnipeg Jets, 5-3, at Winnipeg Arena to sweep their two-game series.

Wayne Gretzky should have been celebrating his 37th goal--his fourth in four games--and two assists.

Goalie Daniel Berthiaume should have been overjoyed at blocking 28 Jet shots to beat his former club.

And owner Bruce McNall should have been elated at seeing his club improve to 36-20-7 and boost its Smythe Division lead over the runner-up Calgary Flames to four points with 17 games to play.

But each man found his happiness tempered by controversy.

Gretzky displayed rare anger over a clipping tacked onto the Jets’ bulletin board and referred to in the Winnipeg papers. The clipping, from the Orange County Register, is a story quoting Gretzky as saying that the Kings, Flames and Edmonton Oilers all want to finish first in the division to “get the bye” in the first round of the playoffs.

Translation: Because they are in fourth place and would play the first-place team, the Jets took it to mean they were considered no tougher than a bye.

“It’s no secret,” Gretzky said, “we don’t want to face both Calgary and Edmonton. We don’t make any bones about that. They both have playoff experience and they are both Stanley Cup champions. But I don’t consider any team a bye. I’m not demeaning any other team. It bothers me that they said I did.”

Upon arriving in town Sunday, McNall was hit with a story from the Toronto Globe and Mail saying he had violated NHL regulations by walking into his clubhouse recently and offering the team $1 million if it wins the Smythe Division and $1.5 million if it wins the Stanley Cup.

McNall denied it, but that wouldn’t necessarily have been a violation anyway. The league prohibits bonuses only for winning a particular game or series against a particular club. The fine for doing so is $10,000.

McNall doesn’t dispute that the Kings have bonus clauses in their contracts regarding performance goals and the overall success of the team.

“If I thought it would do any good,” McNall said, “I would have offered it (the million-dollar bonuses) and taken the fine of the league. If you could buy a Stanley Cup, who wouldn’t? But I don’t think players are motivated that way.”

Berthiaume is still bitter over the treatment he felt he got by the Winnipeg media when he was a Jet. He feels inflammatory stories about his relationship with Winnipeg fans chased him out of town.

So when he was approached for postgame comments Sunday, he stormed out of the clubhouse despite the pleas of King personnel.

Oh, a game was played Sunday afternoon, although it almost got lost in the controversy.

The Kings never trailed before a sellout crowd of 15,561. Tomas Sandstrom’s 34th goal gave them the first-period lead.

Each team scored twice in the second period, Gretzky and Tony Granato (22nd goal) for the Kings, Thomas Steen (13th) and Mark Osborne (10th) for Winnipeg.

Todd Elik redirected Brian Benning’s shot for his 16th goal at 4:48 of the final period for a 4-2 lead.

Phil Housley got the Jets closer with his 21st goal, but the Kings tightened defensively, limiting Winnipeg to eight shots on goal in the final period.

Steve Kasper closed out the scoring with his sixth goal into an empty net after Winnipeg pulled its goalie with little over two minutes to play.

The loss dropped the Jets to 22-33-11. They are 1-4-2 over their past seven games.

It was also the first loss by Winnipeg goalie Bob Essensa to the Kings in seven games. But he gave up four of the five goals on only 20 shots, the other one going into the open net.

And the Kings showed they know how to protect a lead, a quality lacking in previous seasons.

“It easier to play now,” defenseman Steve Duchesne said. “You don’t need to ask, ‘where is everybody?’ In the past, everybody was going to score and there was nobody to help out. You felt a little lonely back there.”

King Notes

Bruce McNall left Sunday night for Toronto, where he hopes to wrap up the purchase of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League this week. . . . King forward Brad Jones sat out with a bruised foot.