They Should Put in for Overtime

Hello, Air Canada?

Reservations, please.

Longer live the Kings.

When the going got tough, Wayne Gretzky got going. And the Kings are going back to Toronto. They’re going thanks to Gretzky’s overtime goal Thursday night, and thanks, Wayne. It’s been a lovely winter here in Los Angeles, so let the season continue. I’m dreaming of a white Memorial Day.

It was a goal that enabled the Kings to finally prevail, 5-4, over a bunch of Maple Leafs who, led by Wendel Clark’s three goals, just wouldn’t go away. However this series turns out, the Leafs have proven themselves as worthy adversaries as there can be.

This one’s a fight to the finish. What is Saturday’s game going to take-- three overtimes?

Gretzky, who hadn’t been heard from much, said afterward: “I’m not superhuman.”

We’ll be the judge of that.

“I can’t go out and get three or four points every night,” Gretzky continued. “It’s impossible. Even I can’t do that.

“But I’ll take a night like this one instead. I’ll take this any time.”

The first period Thursday could be summed up in one sentence:

If it moved, Rob Blake hit it.

He was everywhere. He hit everyone. He hit half the Toronto population. Leafs fell like autumn. Blake wasted everybody in the Forum but the ushers. I think he creamed Goldie Hawn at one point. It wasn’t the kind of contact usually associated with a King. It was the kind of contact usually associated with Bruce Lee.

He also played thinking person’s hockey. Blake used more than his body. He used his mind--and his stick. Book-ended by a Toronto two-on-one, Blake bided his time until Bill Berg made a move. Berg drew a bead on Kelly Hrudey from the right side. Extending himself the full reach of his 6 feet 3 inches, Blake prodded the puck from Berg’s control, 10 seconds from the end of the period.

Defense was the order of the day. The Kings dressed seven defensemen. In Game 5, Alexei Zhitnik had had his bell rung, Tim Watters his dentures knocked loose. It wasn’t certain how prepared either would be. So, Jimmy Carson sat out another big game. It wasn’t scoring that the Kings needed (not that Carson had provided any). It was checking.

After all, the Leafs were pooped. They were playing their 20th game in 39 days. Then they made another long trip to Los Angeles for the game. Not that the Kings were much fresher, but maybe some hard-hitting defense would take the starch out of Toronto’s tired players and persuade them to try to clinch this series back in Leafland.

Others took Blake’s cue. Zhitnik proved he was fit for duty by leveling Anderson. Marty McSorley, who needs no cue to do his thing, put Clark in a headlock. (Too bad he didn’t keep him there.)

Gary Shuchuk in particular left a trail of Leaf bodies. He practically snapped Doug Gilmour’s cap at one point. It was Shuchuk who sent Clark careening toward the King bench, prompting an exchange of blows between McSorley and Toronto’s Bob Rouse that resulted in roughing penalties for both.

King defensemen also had chances on offense. Tim Watters had three cracks at Felix Potvin in the first period alone.

And did Warren Rychel ever miss an opportunity. Loitering in front of the Toronto goal, the rookie took a textbook pass from Wayne Gretzky that gave him so much freedom to maneuver, he overdid it. Switching to backhand and then attempting to golf one over the shoulder of a goalie who supposedly can be beaten high, Rychel paused so long before shooting the puck that Potvin’s posture improved in time to spear it.

A King defenseman who did score was Zhitnik. Unfortunately, he scored for the wrong team.

A shot by the pesky Glenn Anderson--the man responsible for Game 5’s unhappy ending--bounced off Zhitnik’s skate and past a misdirected Hrudey for the game’s first score. Coming as it did 57 seconds into the game, it gave Anderson two terribly important goals--two days yet one minute apart.

Tony Granato got it back for the Kings with one of those I’ll-take-it-any-way-I-can-get-one goals. He didn’t shoot it. He didn’t deflect it. All Granato did was lay there helplessly at Potvin’s feet while Darryl Sydor used his teammate’s prone body like a racquetball wall. Somehow the puck squirted into the cage before Granato and several others did.

A bad break led to good things for the Kings. A penalty shot at best or tripping call at worst should have occurred after Blake was spilled on a breakaway, but neither was called. This led to crowd chants regarding referee Kerry Fraser that were not complimentary. But it inspired the Kings to score twice, quickly, McSorley doing the honors first, then Sydor with a long slapper 2:22 later.

All was well. The Kings led, 4-2. Air Canada was booking flight reservations.

But nobody remembered to tell Clark he could take the rest of the night off.

With 1:21 to play in regulation and the Maple Leaf bus double-parked, Clark prolonged the game. Yes, the Leafs were tired, but they were happy to put in for some more overtime.

When you work this hard for something, you’re willing to do a little extra.