Miracle on Manchester

The game, the third in a best-of-five postseason series, was played at The Forum, the Kings' home arena at the time, which was situated on Manchester Boulevard in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood.

Combined with upset wins in Games 1 and 5, the Kings eliminated the Gretzky-led Oilers in a 3–2 series victory to reach the second round.

Under the leadership of head coach and general manager Glen Sather, they finished first in the Clarence Campbell Conference and second best in the league after the New York Islanders.

The Oilers’ offensive attack was led by Wayne Gretzky, Glenn Anderson, Mark Messier, and Jari Kurri.

Dionne's usual left winger, Charlie Simmer, missed 30 games due to injury and tallied only 39 points during regular season play.

This youthful presence in the Los Angeles lineup was further solidified by forwards Bernie Nicholls, Doug Smith, and Daryl Evans.

The 1980s were a decade that witnessed an increasingly speedy game, one which seemed unstoppable to the Kings' old, rangy, "stay-at-home" blueliners of the 1970s.

Combining that mark with the Kings' season road record of 5–26–9 formed an expectation of the Oilers taking the first two games.

Before the series, Los Angeles coach Don Perry elected to utilize his team's youth and offensive speed to try to simply outscore the Oilers rather than shut them down.

Game 2, both teams played more defensively, and thus was a low-scoring, more traditional style of playoff hockey, as the Kings and Oilers were tied 2–2 after regulation time had expired.

A pass found Messier on the left wing, and he took a slap shot from about 25 feet out that went off Lessard's glove and into the net to give Edmonton a 1–0 lead.

While on the power play near the end of the first period, the Kings made another offensive rush at Fuhr, with Dionne taking a centering pass and sending a wrist shot toward the Oiler net.

Nevertheless, Gretzky was able to get his stick back down to ice level long enough to fire a sharp-angled shot that beat Lessard on the short side for a short-handed goal to put the Oilers up 2–0.

Anderson sent a hard pass that went through Chartraw's legs and onto the stick of Gretzky, and all he had to do was deflect the puck into the net to give the Oilers a power play goal and a seemingly insurmountable 5–0 lead, and the score stayed that way as the second period came to a close.

Kings owner Jerry Buss also left the game early, and was greeted with jeers from the Forum crowd.

Early in the third period, with both teams at four skaters per side, the Kings gained possession of the puck in the neutral zone and tried an attack on the Oiler net.

Lewis' face was cut, so Unger was assessed an automatic five-minute major penalty for high sticking.

The criss-cross put the Oilers out of position for a split second, and Hardy used the small window of time to cut in past Gretzky and take a wrist shot back against the grain, toward the right side of the net.

There was an anxious moment for the Kings, as Oiler forward Pat Hughes gained a loose puck at center ice and had a clean breakaway.

The Kings had trouble setting up the puck in the Oiler zone on the major power play, and game time was dwindling away.

When play was stopped with 1:37 left, Perry changed goaltenders for the Kings, bringing on Doug Keans to replace Lessard.

Finally, with a minute left, the Kings pulled Lessard for an extra attacker to essentially give them a two-skater advantage over the Oilers.

[3] In the last ten seconds, Fox sent the puck back to Hardy, who was farther away from the net, but was positioned in the center of the Oiler zone.

The Oilers, being two men short, were not positioned to defend Bozek, and watched in horror as the puck slid perfectly toward the King rookie's stick.

Fuhr did not have enough time to react and adjust his position for Bozek's shot, and was helpless as the puck sailed between his pads and into the net.

He went into a slide, but in doing so, he collided with Oiler Glenn Anderson about 40 feet in front of the Kings' net and the puck moved even farther out of his reach.

Later in the overtime period, the Kings had a scoring chance, as Doug Smith entered the Oiler zone with an open lane on the right wing.

After landing in Edmonton and arriving at their hotel, the Kings players were confronted by a cleaning lady saying, "you didn't treat my boys very well in Los Angeles."

Bob Miller, long-time Kings play-by-play announcer, wrote that after the game: "I was so excited that I wanted to call home, but the only pay phone I could find was near the Oilers dressing room.

On the 40-year anniversary of Miracle on Manchester, the Kings introduced their second Reverse Retro jersey, inspired by the event.