The Edmonton Oilers were all over the Northlands Coliseum ice Wednesday night.
Newly acquired Paul Coffey, Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri visited their old stomping ground in their silver and black sweaters to compete in what resembled an intra-squad, intra-era scrimmage.But Anatoli Semenov notched a pair of goals to ruin Coffey's debut and lead the Oilers to a 4-3 triumph.
For Coffey, an Oiler for seven seasons, it seemed fitting that his first stop back in the Smythe Division should be Edmonton.
"It's ironic of the 22 teams in the league the first game is here," said the former Penguin and NHL all-time leading scorer among defensemen. Coffey wastraded to Los Angeles Wednesday as part of a three-team deal.
"But I enjoy coming back here playing. Ninety per cent of the guys in this dressing room I've played with, here (Edmonton) or on Canada Cups."
In exchange for Coffey, who was traded to Pittsburgh by Edmonton in 1987, the Kings sent defensemen Jeff Chychrun and Brian Benning and their first-round 1992 draft choice to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh then sent high-scoring right winger Mark Recchi, Benning and the Kings' pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for right winger Rick Tocchet, defenseman Kjell Samuelsson, goaltender Ken Wregget and a conditional 1993 draft pick.
Canadiens 2, Whalers 2
At Hartford, Kirk Muller scored with :31 left in the third period to lift Montreal Canadiens to a 2-2 overtime tie with Hartford. Montreal, which now has 76 points, trails the front-running New York Rangers by just two points in the NHL overall standings. The Whalers have won just once in their last 19 games (1-11-7).
Blues 4, Jets 3
At Winnipeg, Jeff Brown broke a 1-1 with :54 left in the first period and St. Louis survived a blown three-goal lead and moved into second place in the Norris Division. Brown snuck past the Winnipeg defense and flipped the rebound of Brett Hull's center-ice drive past Jets goaltender Bob Essensa at 19:04.
Flames 6, Jets 4
At Calgary, Ronnie Stern scored his first career hat trick to lead the Flames to just their second win since January 24. With the Flames leading 5-4, Stern knocked in Carey Wilson's rebound to cap off his three-goal effort at 14:32 of the third, ending the Bruins comeback bid.
Canucks 6, Sabres 5
At Vancouver, Trevor Linden scored a pair of goals to lead the Canucks and end their season-high winless streak at five. The Canucks, the Smythe Division front-runners, lead second-place Los Angeles by 10 points. Linden got his stick on Sergio Momesso's fanned shot and, with his back to the net, snapped the puck in at 6:58 of the third to give the Canucks a 6-3 lead. Buffalo scored twice within a span of :41 to close to 6-5, but could not get the equalizer.