On the cusp of winning multiple Stanley Cups, the fast-skating, high-scoring 1981-82 Edmonton Oilers were sidetracked by the “Miracle on Manchester.” It came in Game 3 of their best-of-five opening- round Cup series with the Los Angeles King.   Despite an incredible 31-5-4 won-lost-tied record in Edmonton’s Northlands Coliseum during the regular season, the Oilers lost Game 1, 10 to 8, then rebounded for a 3-2 overtime win in Game 2. The series shifted to Los Angeles and The Forum, on Manchester Boulevard in Inglewood, Calif., for Game 3.

The Oilers temporarily quieted the loud and boisterous Forum throng by scoring first, when Mark Messier, the tough, talented Oilers leader, blasted a shot off the glove of  Kings goalie Mario Lessard and into the L.A. net. A very young Wayne Gretzky put Edmonton up 2-0 when he carried the puck the length of the ice, deked past Kings defenseman Jerry “King Kong” Korab and fired a low shot from a sharp angle past Lessard. The Oilers increased their lead to 3-0 and then 4-0 in the second period. At that point, Gretzky and teammate Dave Lewis began taunting the Kings players, a move that would prove disastrous for the visitors.

After Edmonton stretched its lead to 5-0, the Kings scored on a Jay Wells shot from about 30 feet out that found Oilers goalie Grant Fuhr’s five-hole.

An Oilers penalty five minutes later opened the door for the Kings. Doug Smith cut the Edmonton lead to 5-2 on a slap shot that sailed just under the crossbar of the Oilers’ net.

A freakish goal reduced the Edmonton lead further. With Fuhr trying to corral the puck in the Oilers crease, defenseman Randy Gregg accidentally bumped him, knocking the puck loose from Fuhr’s grasp and across the goal line.

Rocked back onto their heels by the L.A. rally, the Oilers lost their poise. The Kings quickly scored. Then, with one minute left to play in regulation time, the Kings pulled Lessard. Fifteen seconds later, the sure-handed Gretzky coughed up the puck to the Kings’ Jim Fox, who relayed it to Mark Hardy, who blasted a shot at Fuhr. The goalie couldn’t control the rebound and the puck bounced right to the Kings’ Steve Bozek, who fired a low, backhand shot between the goalie’s leg pads that sent the game into overtime.

Still, the Oilers almost pulled out the win early in OT when Lessard ventured far out of his crease and the puck wound up on the stick of Messier. The power forward who would become the toast of the Big Apple 12 years later following the New Rangers first Cup win in 54 years inexplicably missed the wide-open L.A. net.

Not long after, the Kings’ Smith won a face-off with Messier and pushed the puck back to fellow rookie Daryl Evans, who beat Fuhr on his glove side for the game winner.

The Kings not only took Game 3, 6-5, but they went on to upset the Oilers and advance to the next round of the playoffs against the Vancouver Canucks.