Rec-League Refugee Kocur Makes Point

PHILADELPHIA — The Detroit Red Wings looked everywhere for someone with toughness and character, a player who would fight the battles their skillful forwards were being drawn into and could lead without being a loudmouth.

All they had to do was look northwest of Detroit to Lakeland, where free-agent right wing Joe Kocur was playing in an over-30 league. “We have a lot of scouts and we even scout the beer leagues,” said Kris Draper, who centers for Kocur and left wing Kirk Maltby on the Red Wings’ Grind Line. “That’s where we get our best players.”

That line stole the spotlight from some of the NHL’s best players Saturday in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. Maltby and Kocur each scored a goal in the first period, and Draper had an assist to launch the Red Wings to a 4-2 victory over Philadelphia, boosting their confidence and their chances of ending the franchise’s 42-year Cup drought.

“The opposition is usually going to check your star players tightly, and they may not get the good scoring chances other guys get,” Red Wing goalie Mike Vernon said Sunday. “You look at past playoffs and you see the guys who were the heroes were the second, third and fourth lines. We’re getting that now. It’s nice to see guys like Joe Kocur score his first playoff goal. It was a very big one.”

Kocur’s goal, scored after he intercepted a pass Flyer defenseman Kjell Samuelsson intended for Shjon Podein, gave the Red Wings the lead for good. It also gave Kocur a thrill he could never have anticipated a few months ago, after his contract with Vancouver expired and he wasn’t re-signed.

“It’s a big change in what my plans were then and where they are now,” said Kocur, who played for the Red Wings from 1984-91 before being traded to the New York Rangers and getting his name on the Cup in 1994. “There couldn’t be a better script.”

He joked that he made his recreation league team only because he supplied the jerseys, and that he played defense “and didn’t even try to score.” But in Game 1 he showed the flair of a natural scorer, shifting from his forehand to his backhand to fool Flyer goalie Ron Hextall and lift the puck into the net. “I practice that move a lot,” Kocur said, “but the puck usually ends up in the corner of the rink, not the corner of the net.”

Now the Flyers feel they could be pushed into a corner if they don’t win Game 2, Tuesday at the CoreStates Center. “We certainly don’t want to go [to Detroit] down, 2-0,” Hextall said. “Is it a must-win? It’s probably as close to a must-win as we’ve had in the playoffs.”

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Hextall’s so-so performance--particularly his failure to stop a shot by Steve Yzerman from the blue line 56 seconds into the third period--raised the possibility that the Flyers will switch goalies for Game 2.

Coach Terry Murray said he hadn’t decided whether to stay with Hextall, who is 4-1 with a 2.58 goals-against average and .904 save percentage, or go back to Garth Snow, who displaced Hextall at the start of the playoffs but lost his job after two games of the Eastern Conference finals. Snow is 8-3 with a 2.72 goals-against average and .895 save percentage.

“I thought Hexy played well,” Murray said. “We gave up several odd-man rushes, and on the third goal we made a mistake in front of him. The fourth took a lot away from our hockey club. That’s not knocking Hexy. That’s the way it is in this business.”

Snow said Murray hadn’t indicated he is starting Tuesday. “And to answer your next question, if I did know, I wouldn’t tell you,” he said.

Said Flyer captain Eric Lindros: “I wouldn’t say Ron was, by any stretch of the imagination, the biggest reason why we lost. He wasn’t as sharp as he has been, but who was? I certainly wasn’t. I know Johnny [LeClair] wasn’t. If we can all pick it up, I think we stand a good chance.”

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Only a few Red Wings skated Sunday, but Murray put the Flyers through a brisk workout, emphasizing smarter play in the neutral zone, forechecking with more intensity and making better use of their superior size and good speed. “I know we will be a better team Tuesday,” Murray said.

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Players dressed at the Core States Center but skated at the Spectrum because the circus is occupying the Flyers’ new home. Before boarding a bus to the Spectrum, Draper watched a parade of elephants pass and marveled at their size. “Now you know how I felt taking faceoffs [Saturday] night,” he said.

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Lindros took the playoff scoring lead with 11 goals and 25 points in 16 games. . . . LeClair extended his point-scoring streak to eight games. . . . The Red Wings are 13-0 in the playoffs when a member of their Russian Five unit scores a point and 0-4 when the five are scoreless. . . . Maltby’s short-handed goal Saturday was the first to open the scoring in the finals since 1936.