Hockey Championships

Inconsistency cost them their division title. A strike nearly cost them their season. A temper tantrum cost them their coach, Tom Webster, for 12 games. In addition, their owner, Bruce McNall, threatened to relinquish control of the team and their star player, Wayne Gretzky, hinted at retirement. And that was only the regular season for the Kings. Well forget all that. They plan to.

This is some sort of joke, right? The national college hockey championship in Southern California? The NCAA begs to set college academic standards, and yet its executives flunk geography? The schools advancing to the Frozen Four--Boston College, Maine, Michigan State and New Hampshire--play three time zones to the east. No school west of the Rocky Mountains fields a Division I hockey team--unless you go north, way north, to Alaska. Who dreamed up this crazy concept?

It was the trade that shocked a nation, angered a city and, supposedly, decimated a team. Goodby Wayne Gretzky. Goodby Stanley Cup. For two years, that's all Edmonton Oiler owner Peter Pocklington has been hearing after dealing The Great One to the Kings. But no more. Not after Thursday. Gretzky may be in Los Angeles, but the Stanley Cup is back in Edmonton after the Oilers defeated the Boston Bruins Thursday night, 4-1, before a Boston Garden crowd of 14,448 to win the finals in five games.

For the first time in more than 20 years of existence, the Kings appear good enough to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup. It might surprise their fans, though, to know that the Kings are not the first local hockey team to challenge for a national championship. In fact, Los Angeles once actually boasted a national champion, and the entire championship series was played before the hometown fans. The season was 1943-44.

A hockey team called the Mariners. It's as odd as a regatta yacht named the Iceberg. "By gosh, who thought there would ever be a hockey team named the Mighty Ducks?," Sean McGillivray said. "We have a class operation." And a winning one. McGillivray is general manager of the Ventura Mariners, a Simi Valley-based team that will begin play in the eight-team Junior B National Championships today in Blaine, Minn. Ventura opens against the East Metro Lakers at 2:30 p.m.

Detroit center Sergei Fedorov was the NHL's most valuable player three seasons ago. But he played on the third line and the blue line this season, and his goal in Game 1 was a big one--his first of the playoffs. "It's an interesting season," Fedorov said. "I think I can write a book on this one season. But I'm not a psychic. I can't predict what is next for me. I could call one of those numbers and say, 'How does my season end?'

Time and the season were running out on them, but the Kings weren't ready to go gently into the chilly Colorado night. Facing playoff elimination Friday at Denver, they pulled out a 1-0 victory over the Avalanche and prolonged their second-round playoff series at least one more game. Their playoff path isn't for the faint of heart or faint of spirit--all six of their victories have been by one goal, three in overtime--but the Kings feel they're getting stronger.

Little did Steve Thomas know that the "kid" he saw last summer at a youth hockey tournament would become so important to him. Thomas was in Toronto watching his son, Christian, play when he was introduced to a baby-faced Stanislav Chistov by a mutual friend. "He looked like he should have been getting ready to play in one of the pee-wee games," Thomas said. "It's weird. I had forgotten we met until he reminded me recently."

The NHL announced the schedule for the first round of the playoffs. The Ducks will play at Detroit on Wednesday and Friday. Games 3 and 4 will be at the Pond on Sunday and Tuesday, April 27. Game 5, if necessary, will be at Detroit on April 29, Game 6, if necessary, at the Pond on May 2 and Game 7, if necessary, at Detroit on May 4.