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In a series that has already given us more plot twists than a great Russian novel, tonight may have been its most operatic chapter yet. On a crisp October evening in Edmonton — the kind of night when history seems to hover just above the rink, waiting to be claimed — the Hartford Whalers and Edmonton Oilers engaged in a nine-inning classic, the likes of which will be talked about in both provinces and ports for years to come.
Hartford 13, Edmonton 12. A scoreline that reads more like a summer slugfest at Fenway than a fall night in Alberta.
And at the center of it all — as if ripped from a chapter of Whalers lore — was Ron Francis. Cool, methodical, and devastatingly precise. Three hits, two of them majestic home runs, and a double that seemed to clang like a bell over the din of the Rogers Place crowd. Four runs scored. Five driven in. On this night, Francis was not merely playing in the moment… he was defining it.
The Whalers, who had watched a 9–5 lead evaporate the night before, answered every Oilers surge tonight with a punch of their own. In a game that swung back and forth like a pendulum in a clock tower, it was Gianfrancesco Arriola who finally pushed it out of reach — a crisp, opposite-field single off Yo****o Wakayama in the ninth that gave Hartford the edge. The swing of a bat. The turn of a series.
Make no mistake, Edmonton did not go quietly. Wayne Gretzky, a portrait of poise, reached base five times. Hyeon In-ho drove in six runs, each one louder than the last. And the crowd, 39,185 strong, was on its feet to the very end — sensing, perhaps, that this was something bigger than a single game. This was theater.
And so the series, knotted now at two games apiece, heads east to Hartford. A building once considered a small-market afterthought now finds itself the next stage of a playoff opera. On Saturday night at the Hartford Civic Center, the stakes will grow heavier, the moments sharper.
Ron Francis reminded us tonight that legends aren’t born under bright lights. They seize them. And in doing so, they pull everyone else — teammates, opponents, and fans — into their orbit.
Hartford 13. Edmonton 12. A heavyweight bout disguised as a hockey game.
This is Bob Costas… in Edmonton, where the series is tied, and the story is far from over.
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