This Day in Hockey History – May 7, 1985 and 1993 – Winning Games with Wayne Gretzky

It did not matter which team or which decade, on May 7, Wayne Gretzky made a difference. In 1985, he contributed three assists to help the Edmonton Oilers set a record for consecutive playoff wins. Then in 1993, his two goals for the Los Angeles Kings made him the first NHL player to reach 100 playoff goals and 19 playoff-game winners.

Edmonton sailed into the 1985 postseason as the defending champions. Having swept the Kings (3-0) and Winnipeg Jets (4-0), the Oilers moved into the Campbell Conference finals, where they played the Chicago Blackhawks. The first two games of the series took place at Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum. The Oilers crushed the Blackhawks 11-2 on May 4.

Although Chicago improved in Game 2, Edmonton still scored nearly double, thanks to Captain Gretzky and his teammates Jari Kurri and Glenn Anderson. Kurri had a hat trick (his second in three games) thanks to two Gretzky assists, and Anderson scored twice while assisting on Kurri’s third goal. For their final goals, Kurri and Anderson scored seven seconds apart on Chicago’s empty net.

The Oilers set a record by winning their ninth consecutive playoff game in one season. Since they had won their final three games in the finals the previous season (on May 15, 17, and 19), the Oilers actually had a streak of twelve games.

In one of the most shocking trades in NHL history, Gretzky joined the Kings in 1988. Through 1992, they always lost in the Division semi-finals or finals. During the 1993 postseason, Los Angeles defeated the Calgary Flames in the semi-finals (4-2) and went on to play the Vancouver Canucks in the Smythe Division finals. Although they lost Game 1 at Vancouver on May 2 (5-2), they won Game 2 there on May 5 (6-3).

For Game 3, on May 7, the series moved to California’s Great Western Forum. No one scored until the latter half of the second period, when the Kings succeeded on a power play. Vancouver answered with two goals, and at 19:09, Gretzky assisted on Los Angeles’ tying goal. The Kings tallied three more in the first ten minutes of the third. Gretzky’s old teammate Jari Kurri, having made his way onto the same team in 1991, assisted on the first and scored the second of these. At 9:03, as the first to do so, Gretzky scored his 100th playoff goal, unassisted.

Vancouver managed two more goals over the last half, so Gretzky’s ended up being the game-winner. That put him one over Maurice Richard, the previous record-holder for game-winning playoff goals. Gretzky commented, “Any time you reach a milestone it’s always exciting, but they never really mean a whole lot unless you win. It really makes it extra special when it’s a big goal. We went up 5-2 and as it turned out, it was a big goal for us.”

To top off the night at the literal final second, Gretzky, again unassisted, sent a slap shot from the boards into the empty net. Afterwards, coach Barry Melose admitted that Gretzky had played with a cracked rib the whole time. He told the press, “It was broken in half. He was playing with it loose in his stomach. He also has a terrible vertebrae, two bad knees and hemmorhoids. It’s no big deal.” Goalie Kelly Hrudey adequately summed up the game in one sentence, “But leave it to Gretzky.”

Gretzky’s contributions had similar outcomes on game day but different results down the line. On May 7, the Oilers won 7-3 and the Kings won 7-4. Both teams survived the series, 4-2, to move on in the playoffs. Edmonton went on to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers to win the 1985 Stanley Cup. Los Angeles defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in the Conference finals but lost to the Montreal Canadiens in the 1993 Stanley Cup finals. As for Gretzky himself, he was the postseason scoring leader for both 1985 (17G, 30A, 47P) and 1993 (15G, 25A, 40P). He finished his career with 24 game-winners, a record later matched by Brett Hull. Gretzky also had a total of 122 playoff goals, a record that may never be broken.

Additional Sources:

• Mike Commito, Hockey 365: Daily Stories from the Ice (Toronto: Dundurn, 2018), kindle edition.
• Jim Matheson, “Oilers Beat Improved Hawks,” Edmonton Journal, 8 May 1985, p. C1.
• Iain MacIntyre, “Kings’ coach splits a rib after concealing Gretzky injury,” Vancouver Sun, 8 May 1993, p. D1.
• “Gretzky reaches a new milestone,” San Francisco Examiner, 8 May 1993, p. C-3.