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Edmonton Oilers history: Jari Kurri scores hat-trick in Game 2 win over Chicago Black Hawks, May 7, 1985

1985: Glenn Anderson scored three goals, Jari Jurri two, and Paul Coffey and Larry Melnyk one each as the Oilers won a hard-fought verdict over the visiting Chicago Black Hawks 7-3 in Game 2 of the Campbell Conference final.

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This day in Oilers history: May 7

Oilers 7 Black Hawks 3

Oilers lead series 2-0

1985: Glenn Anderson scored three goals, Jari Kurri two, and Paul Coffey and Larry Melnyk one each as the Oilers won a hard-fought verdict over the visiting Chicago Black Hawks 7-3 in Game 2 of the Campbell Conference final.

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One each of Anderson’s and Kurri’s goals were into an empty net seven seconds apart in the final minute of play with Hawks goalie Murray Bannerman on the bench for an extra attacker.

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The win was the Oilers’ ninth in a row these playoffs. Coupled with three wins they had at the end of their run to the 1984 Stanley Cup title, it gave Edmonton a new NHL record for most consecutive playoff victories over more than one season, beating marks set by the Montreal Canadiens (three time) and the Boston Bruins.

The Hawks did play hard in front of 17,211 fans at Northlands Coliseum, however. The games wasn’t as one-sided as the score suggests.

“They had us running around in our own end,” Oilers head coach Glen Sather said. “I sensed we were getting tired. If we had one problem, it was we were leaving our own zone too soon. We were too eager to get going offensively.”

Edmonton Oilers centre Mark Messier stops beside Chicago Black Hawks goalie Murray Bannerman with defenceman Bob Murray tying him up on May 7, 1985, during Game 2 of the Campbell Conference final at Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum.
Edmonton Oilers centre Mark Messier stops beside Chicago Black Hawks goalie Murray Bannerman with defenceman Bob Murray tying him up on May 7, 1985, during Game 2 of the Campbell Conference final at Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum. Photo by Staff file /Edmonton Journal

Oilers 4 Red Wings 1

Series tied 1-1

1987: The Detroit Red Wings drew first blood in this series, winning Game 1, but the Oilers pressed and came out with a hard-fought 4-1 win to tie the Campbell Conference final.

They did it by pouring 34 shots on Red Wings goalie Greg Stefan, while the Red Wings managed just 18 on Oilers counterpart Grant Fuhr. Stefan made a series of big stops, especially in the final period — in which the Oilers fired 17 pucks his way, only one of them for a goal, a late one with 82 seconds left by Mark Messier — to keep the game close.

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Messier scored the opening goal (his 50th career playoff marker) 52 seconds into the game, Jari Kurri had a late first-period strike and Jaroslav Pouzar added an empty-netter to round out the scoring for the Oilers, while Bob Probert tallied the lone goal on the power play for the Red Wings.


Red Wings 5 Oilers 2

Oilers lead series 2-1

1988: The Detroit Red Wings avoid going down a daunting three games to the top-ranked Oilers, winning Game 3 of the Campbell Conference final 5-2 at home.

Two goals in the last two-and-a-half minutes by Dave Barr and Mel Bridgman ensured the victory for Detroit, who recorded 67 hits in the game.

The Oilers hadn’t lost since April 9, winning eight playoff games in a row since then.

“This is the playoffs. You don’t beat everybody every night. You don’t win every series four straight,” said Oilers captain Wayne Gretzky.

Red Wings captain Steve Yzerman played his first game in nine weeks following a knee injury, getting 13-1/2 minutes of ice-time and assisting on a goal.

“We’re tickled to climb back in this thing,” Yzerman said. “Nobody wants to hear the talk about a sweep.”

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Edmonton Oilers captain Kelly Buchberger celebrates one of his two goals on May 5, 1998, against the Colorado Avalanche at Edmonton Coliseum.
Edmonton Oilers captain Kelly Buchberger celebrates one of his two goals on May 5, 1998, against the Colorado Avalanche at Edmonton Coliseum. Photo by Chris Schwarz /Edmonton Journal

Oilers 4 Avalanche 3

Avalanche lead series 2-1

1997: By Edmonton Oiler standards, it was only a mediocre Game 3 comeback.

In Game 3 against the Dallas Stars, the Oilers overcame a 3-0 deficit with four minutes to play in one of the greatest playoff comebacks since the NHL took control of the Stanley Cup in 1926. The Oilers won that game 4-3.

By comparison, scoring two goals with just over six minutes left in the third period to beat Colorado 4-3 in front of a Coliseum crowd of 17,099 on Wednesday was small potatoes.

But what a twist it gave the series!

Looking down and out after losses of 5-1 and 4-1 in Colorado, the Oilers offered renewed hope on Wednesday as Avalanche goalie Patrick Roy, seemingly unbeatable in the first two games, gave up third period goals to Kelly Buchberger at 13:57 and Ryan Smyth at 16:15.

And adding injury to insult, a hit by rookie Oiler defenceman Bryan Muir knocked Colorado’s star Peter Forsberg out of the lineup with a minor concussion at 7:32 of the third period and rendered him questionable for Game 4 at the Coliseum on Friday.

“We did what we wanted to, we scored some rebound goals, we created some traffic in front of their net,” said Oilers coach Ron Low.

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“We needed to win a game, to think that we could. Now we’ve done that, and we need to win another one.”

Enter captain Buchberger, with two goals.

“When we’re down and need a lift, he seems to be able to get the big one for us,” said Low.

“Tonight we needed somebody to break that bubble. We scored two early, then we couldn’t get a thing by the guy (Roy). And Bucky got a high rebound and snapped it home.

“But that’s Kelly Buchberger, he’s our captain, and he epitomizes Oiler hockey. He has since he’s been here, and that’s an awful long time. He is the consummate captain.”

— Ray Turchansky


Oilers goalie Curtis Joseph defends the Oiler goal with a broken stick as the Dallas Stars defenceman Derian Hatcher tries to score during NHL playoff action in Dallas on may 5, 1998.
Oilers goalie Curtis Joseph defends the Oiler goal with a broken stick as the Dallas Stars defenceman Derian Hatcher tries to score during NHL playoff action in Dallas on may 5, 1998. Photo by KEVIN FUJII /FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM

Stars 3 Oilers 1

Stars lead series 1-0

1998: The Edmonton Oilers and the Dallas Stars showed up at the fittingly named Reunion Arena to renew old times.

A lot of the faces were the same but that was about it.

There was no Back to the Future stuff. OK, you did see Todd Marchant roaring in once on a Stars’ goalie on a breakaway like in Game 7 last spring, but this time Ed Belfour easily stopped the Oilers winger, unlike Andy Moog in that series clincher.

That was about the only similarity.

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The Stars, who’ve been waiting 373 days to gain their few ounces of flesh against the Oilers, had too much Mike Modano and Belfour in their 3-1 Game 1 win.

Modano had the biggest Stanley Cup assist night of his career, setting up all three Dallas goals — two by Sergei Zubov and a wonderful no-looker to Mike Keane early in the third period when the Oilers were clawing back.

Belfour made 32 saves, 25 in the final 40 minutes. The only shot that snuck past him was from Valeri Zelepukin, who’d been waiting 102 days to beat a goalie.

“I thought we played hard after we were awful the first 10 minutes when they got their two goals,” said Oilers coach Ron Low. “But it’s going to be a war before it’s over. This was only the first battle.”

— Jim Matheson


Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Smyth directs his teammates against the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on May 7, 2006, at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
Edmonton Oilers forward Ryan Smyth directs his teammates against the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals on May 7, 2006, at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif. Photo by Harry How /Getty Images

Sharks 2 Oilers 1

Sharks lead series 1-0

2006: Steve Staios was adamant that the Oilers were not punished physically. So were Raffi Torres and Shawn Horcoff and even coach Craig MacTavish.

But they had to be sore losers.

The San Jose Sharks laid out 44 hits Sunday night at the HP Pavilion, then delivered one more blow by scoring a 2-1 victory in the opening game of this Western Conference semifinal.

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“It just feels like they took a page out of our game plan. We need to get the puck deep, and we need to grind and make it hard on them. We didn’t tonight,” said Torres after the Sharks had recorded their fifth straight playoff victory.

“Now we have a good taste of what the series is going to be about.”

The Oilers, having knocked off the Detroit Red Wings in their first playoff round, and the Sharks, winners against Nashville, played this one out as expected. They banged and crashed through 60 minutes and set the tone for the games to come– particularly the Sharks, who dominated the second period.

Jeff Wagner (right) and Logan Delaney react to a San Jose goal as they watch the Edmonton Oilers take on the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 at Hudson’s Tap House on May 7, 2006.
Jeff Wagner (right) and Logan Delaney react to a San Jose goal as they watch the Edmonton Oilers take on the San Jose Sharks in Game 1 at Hudson’s Tap House on May 7, 2006. Photo by FIle /Postmedia

“It seemed like I had my face to the glass a little more than I would have liked, but it’s just a product of our team play. We just have to get sharper,” said Staios. “We just spent too much time in our zone. We’ll learn from it.”

“It’s hockey. It’s not like we have bumps and bruises we’re not going to be able to get over,” said Horcoff.

Less than three minutes after the puck dropped in the first playoff game ever played between these two teams, Ales Hemsky sent a feed across the ice to Jaroslav Spacek who fired in the puck from the right faceoff circle, beating Vesa Toskala with the first goal of the game.

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It was the start the Oilers had hoped for. The power play chipped in on its first crack, and they were able to get the puck in deep, negating the Sharks’ home-ice advantage early.

Five minutes later, in a back-and-forth opening period during which the teams each teed up nine shots on net, Steve Bernier slipped past Staios and fed the puck to the capable

Patrick Marleau who put his eighth goal of the post-season by Dwayne Roloson.

“We just didn’t seem to have our legs we needed to have. I don’t know what that’s a product of,” Horcoff said. “But they came hard and showed us what it’s going to take to win this series.

“We just weren’t aggressive on the forecheck. That’s not our style of hockey.”

— Joanne Ireland

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