Outskating, outchecking and outshooting the defending Stanley Cup champion Edmonton Oilers, the Philadelphia Flyers scored a 4-1 victory Tuesday night in the opening game of this year`s final series.
The Flyers` defense was so stingy that Wayne Gretzky, the greatest scorer in National Hockey League history, didn`t even get a shot on goal.
The Flyers went into the third period with a one-goal lead but that was only because of the brilliant play of Oilers` goalie Grant Fuhr. In the first 40 minutes, the youngest team in the NHL outshot Edmonton 29-12.
It wasn`t until 3:08 remained in the game that Willy Lindstrom scored for the Oilers. By then, the Flyers had three goals.
All Lindstrom`s goal accomplished was to stop Pelle Lindbergh`s shutout streak at 147 minutes 50 seconds and keep him from getting a record-tying fourth playoff shutout.
Flyer center Ron Sutter, kid brother of the Hawks` Darryl, has a twin brother named Rich who also plays for Philadelphia but didn`t dress. So Ron went out and adopted Gretzky as his twin. Wherever Wayne went Ron was sure to follow.
Another anti-Gretzky antidote employed by Flyers` rookie coach Mike Keenan was sending defensemen Mark Howe and Doug Crossman onto the ice whenever No. 99 made an appearance.
The son of Gordie Howe and the former Hawk are two of the best puck-handling defensemen in the NHL. When the puck was on their sticks it lingered awhile, and Gretzky was turned into a lost soul on ice.
”I don`t think they stopped Wayne,” said Glen Sather, Edmonton`s general manager and coach. ”Wayne stopped himself. It`s not very often you see him play like that.”
Philadelphia capitalized on a two-man advantage to get a goal from Ilkka Sinisalo at 15:05 of the first period.
Referee Andy Van Hellemond penalized Lindstrom for cross-checking Lindsay Carson at 13:59 and sent off Charlie Huddy for hooking Tim Kerr in a rebound scramble 14 seconds later.
Sinisalo scored on the rebound of his own shot. Todd Bergen started the play by moving the puck out to Kerr to the right of the net. Fuhr blocked Kerr`s shot but couldn`t control the puck, and Sinisalo made the third rebound attempt a charm.
There was no more scoring until 5:56 of the final period. Then, while the teams were skating four-against-four, Edmonton`s stellar defenseman, Paul Coffey, made a bad pass intended for Gretzky. Ron Sutter intercepted and broke away to make the score 2-0.
”Once they got that second goal, they got the killer instinct,”
said Oiler defenseman Kevin Lowe.
Less than 3 minutes later Kerr, the Flyers` triggerman during the regular season, scored the third goal. In one of his few mistakes of the night, Fuhr flubbed a clearing pass.
Dave Poulin picked off the puck and got it to Kerr. The 54-goal man, who returned after missing five games because of strained knee ligaments, responded by scoring his ninth playoff goal in 10 games.
In addition to assisting on Kerr`s goal, Poulin scored the game`s final goal on an empty net.
”The knee felt pretty good,” said Kerr, who was used judiciously by Keenan. ”It`s still a little tender, and it`s tough to push off.”
The Oilers could relate to that. ”Our feet were in the sand,” said Sather. ”We weren`t skating the way we`re capable of, but Philadelphia played very well.
”What did I think of the ice (on a hot, humid night)? It was horse manure!
”They also had six power plays in the first period and we had half a power play during that time. I don`t want to complain about the referee but he was about as good as the ice.”
The defeat left the Oilers with a 0-8-1 record in their last nine games against the Flyers, who had the best record in the NHL this year.
The Oilers dismissed that statistic as irrelevant, and so did Keenan and his team. ”This team has beaten them four times this year and one of those times was tonight,” said the Flyer coach. ”Basically, this is a different team than the one that was here for the last two years so we don`t consider what happened before.”
