Toronto Maple Leafs Hockey Team

What a quandary for Canadians, knowing that the only thing between their dream of an All-Canadian Stanley Cup final is their native son and favorite export, Wayne Gretzky. Tonight, the Kings will play Toronto in Game 7 of the Campbell Conference finals for the right to meet the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup finals. Gretzky, who grew up about an hour away from Maple Leaf Gardens, is the reason the Kings still have playoff life.

Until Thursday, the Campbell Conference finals were a Cat and mouse game. Toronto goaltender Felix (the Cat) Potvin pounced on nearly everything thrown at him by the Kings in an acrobatic display that brought the Maple Leafs within one victory of their first berth in the Stanley Cup finals since 1967. But in mustering their best offensive showing of the series for the 5-4 overtime victory that sent the teams back to Maple Leaf Gardens tonight for Game 7, the mice might have outsmarted the Cat.

Goaltender Felix Potvin of the Toronto Maple Leafs occasionally looked vulnerable in giving up five goals to the Kings on Thursday, but the Maple Leafs' 5-4 loss couldn't be blamed on him. Before Thursday's game, Potvin had given up two goals or fewer in 11 of his 19 playoff starts and had an outstanding .910 save percentage, inspiring comparisons with the spectacular rookie performance of Patrick Roy in leading the Montreal Canadiens to the 1986 Stanley Cup.

Ninety-nine times out of 100, Wayne Gretzky, would go behind the net in the situation in which he found himself. It was overtime at the Forum Thursday night, Game 6 of the Campbell Conference finals, a berth in the Stanley Cup finals at stake. In the right corner of the Toronto Maple Leafs' zone, Kings Tomas Sandstrom and Luc Robitaille were battling for a loose puck. Robitaille had been battling the whole series to get out of a slump that had seen him contribute only one assist in five games.

Hello, Air Canada? Reservations, please. Longer live the Kings. When the going got tough, Wayne Gretzky got going. And the Kings are going back to Toronto. They're going thanks to Gretzky's overtime goal Thursday night, and thanks, Wayne. It's been a lovely winter here in Los Angeles, so let the season continue. I'm dreaming of a white Memorial Day.

"We're going to Montreal." Those were Coach Barry Melrose's words in the Kings' locker room after Thursday's 5-4 overtime victory sent the Campbell Conference finals back to Toronto for Saturday's Game 7--with the winner advancing to the Stanley Cup finals at Montreal. Melrose repeated the phrase three times: "We're going to Montreal." The Kings will win Game 7? "We're going to Montreal," was Melrose's answer. Melrose also said: "It's not a seventh game. It's a best-of-one now."

Let's see if we've got this straight. You take a bunch of Canadian kids who grew up in small towns, dreaming of putting their names on the Stanley Cup. They hone their skills on ponds and in creaky, cold rinks, hoping for bigger days and bigger arenas. They get taller and faster and better and, one day, they find themselves in the NHL, at the entry level on the road to the hallowed Cup. Then this year, it all comes together for some of those kids.

From Newfoundland to Newport Beach, the hue and cry has burned the Kings' ears for weeks: If goaltending didn't fail them in this Stanley Cup tournament, defense most assuredly would. Sooner or later, one or the other would collapse at the worst possible moment.

Hang on. This thing isn't over. You might feel like it's over. It isn't. It might seem as if the Kings' hockey season has come to a terrible, painful end. It hasn't. If Tuesday's Game 5 had ended the season, they wouldn't be having a Game 6. This is check, not checkmate. The Kings are cornered, not captured. Nobody could blame you for being depressed if you are. The Kings lie wounded. They took a shot to the heart. It was a backhand shot by Glenn Anderson of Toronto. It hurt. It hurt plenty.

Toronto is a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to play a Game 7 there. Back we go to Canada for another Game 5 with the Kings of the road. Relax. Take a pill. Haven't we been here before? April 27--The Kings of the road travel to Calgary, tied in their playoff series with the Flames at two games apiece. The pressure is definitely on them. The crowd is definitely against them.