Kurri Doesn’t Waste Time Making Impact : Hockey: Kings’ new forward has three goals in 6-3 season-opening victory over Jets.

They were first united a decade ago, two kids in their early 20s, the smooth-skating European and the stylish Canadian.

Jari Kurri and Wayne Gretzky.

The first night they skated together on the ice, playing for the Edmonton Oilers in Quebec, Kurri got a hat trick.

They often seemed joined at the hip as they led the way to four Stanley Cups and a book full of NHL records before going their separate ways.

Finally, on Friday night, they were reunited.

In a different city.

In a different uniform.

On a different line.

With the same result. Another hat trick for Kurri. More visions of a Cup dancing in their heads.

There were plenty of heroes for the Kings Friday as they beat the Winnipeg Jets, 6-3, on opening night before a Winnipeg Arena crowd of 14,558.

But all the talk afterward, from the seats to the press box to the dressing rooms, was about The Great Line--Gretzky, Kurri and Tomas Sandstrom--the line that is already being compared to the best this league has produced in 75 seasons.

Nobody would mistake the Jets for the Penguins or any other league powerhouse. And nobody in the Kings’ dressing room was popping champagne corks with 79 games to go. But it took effort to keep the team’s obvious optimism and excitement under control.

“It’s going to be fun,” Gretzky said with a big smile.

It took King owner Bruce McNall $3.75 million and two of his key players--center Steve Kasper and defenseman Steve Duchesne--to pull off the three-team trade last spring that brought Kurri from the Oilers through Philadelphia to his reunion with Gretzky.

But, in 10 seconds, it all seemed worth it.

Late in the first period, Sandstrom received the puck at mid-ice, flipped it to Kurri skating by, and watched as the former Oiler drilled the puck through the legs of Winnipeg goalie Stephane Beauregard from the left circle.

Ten seconds later, Gretzky threw the puck into the corner. Sandstrom gained control and flipped it in front of the crease. Kurri, the late man in, skated past Beauregard, frozen and helpless, and backhanded in his second goal.

Kurri got his hat trick in the final minute of play, firing into an empty net off Gretzky’s pass after Beauregard had been pulled.

“Playing with Wayne, there’s going to be some room out there,” Sandstrom said. “When you play with players like that, if you don’t have fun, it’s time to retire.”

Kurri could easily have had five goals Friday. On a pass from Sandstrom on a power play in the second period, he misfired from in close with Beauregard out of position.

And in the third period, Sandstrom set Kurri up on a rush to the net only to have Beauregard dive headfirst onto the ice to spear the puck and deny Kurri a goal.

What is this guy going to be like once he gets acclimated? This was Kurri’s first NHL game in a year and half. Dissatisfied with Edmonton, Kurri spent last season playing in Italy.

“If you would have asked me a couple of years ago, I would have said this would not happen,” Kurri said of his return to Gretzky’s line.

It wasn’t just the first line that was exceptional. Each member of the new second line of Bob Kudelski, Luc Robitaille and Tony Granato each contributed a goal. Daniel Berthiaume stopped 24 of 27 shots on goal. And the Kings’ penalty-killers shut down the Jets on six of seven tries.

When it was over, Gretzky acknowledged that even he was impressed with his new line.

“A couple of times,” he said, “I caught myself just standing back watching.”

He had a lot of company.

King Notes

The reaction of former King Bernie Nicholls to being traded from the New York Rangers to the Edmonton Oilers Friday along with several other players for Mark Messier? Nicholls told a member of the Kings’ organization he won’t go. . . . Wayne Gretzky said his back, injured in the Canada Cup finals, was sore Friday. . . . Fredrik Olausson scored two of Winnipeg’s goals and Dave McLlwain got the other. . . . The Kings scored on two of eight power plays. They finished with had 31 shots on goal overall, with 24 of those accounted for by the first two lines. Gretzky did not take a shot.