May 26, 1985

The Edmonton Oilers regained some of their offensive touch in the Stanley Cup final tonight, racing to a 4-1 lead and holding on for a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers. Edmonton now leads the four-of-seven-game series, 2-1. Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey had 4 points each and established playoff scoring records as the Oilers moved within two victories of their second consecutive championship. The Oilers took a 2-0 lead in the first 85 seconds and were ahead by 4-1 until the Flyers rallied in the third period. The Flyers cut the lead to 4-2 with 10 minutes 52 seconds left when Mark Howe knocked in a rebound of Rick Tocchet's slap shot from the right point. And with 5:34 left, Brian Propp cut the deficit to one with a shot from a difficult angle on the right side.

Just a few decades ago, professional music-making in the United States was concentrated in a few large cities, most of them on the East Coast. Today, regional dispersion is a fact of our musical life. New performing arts facilities spring up everywhere. Important symphony orchestras and opera companies exist all over the country. The growth of sophisticated smaller groups - chamber-music and recital series, early- and new-music specialists and the like -follows close behind. Such expansion brings with it not just the perhaps expectable growing pains, but a whole new host of problems and prospects, as talks with music leaders around the country make abundantly clear. There are apprehensions about the overextension of our musical resources, concern whether distinctive regional styles are being eradicated, and fears that incessant ''outreach,'' both geographic and demographic, may dilute the quality that a smaller, more sophisticated audience once demanded. Yet the underlying feeling around the country remains optimistic. American music seems to be fulfilling democracy's mandate, reaching ever outward without any perceptible lowering of standards.

A suicide driver rammed a bomb-laden car into the motorcade of the Kuwaiti leader today, killing himself, two bodyguards and a passer-by in an unsuccessful assassination attempt, Kuwaiti officials said. A caller saying he represented the shadowy terrorist group known as Islamic Holy War took responsibility for the attack. The group has demanded the release of 17 convicted terrorists from Kuwaiti prisons in exchange for at least four Americans and two Frenchmen kidnapped in Lebanon. Islamic Holy War has issued a crescendo of threats in recent weeks, including vows to attack American diplomats and a warning that it would open ''the largest military operation'' the United States ''has ever seen.''

Pope John Paul II consecrated 28 cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church today in an outdoor ceremony grand in pageantry and resonant in tradition. From his throne in front of St. Peter's Basilica, the 65-year-old Pope received the men, natives of 19 countries, one by one as they climbed the red-carpeted steps of the largest church in Christendom and knelt before him. The Pope bestowed his blessing and gave to each the two red silk hats symbolic of high station in the church: a skullcap and the square-ridged crown called a biretta. Giving a ring to each of the cardinals, the Pope declared, ''Receive the ring from the hand of Peter and know that with the love of the Prince of the Apostles, your love of the church is strengthened.'' Among the 28 men consecrated today were the archbishops of some of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the world, including John Cardinal O'Connor of New York and Bernard Cardinal Law of Boston.

In ''Arms and the Man,'' George Bernard Shaw debunks the myths of war as noble and heroic and of love as chivalric and uplifting. His ideas were controversial when the play was written in 1895, but today, after two World Wars, Sigmund Freud and the dawn of the nuclear age, they are no longer startling. Shaw, nearly a century later, is an iconoclast whose icons are already largely broken. ''At the time it was written, the ideas of war and love and gentlemanly conduct were fairly exalted,'' said John Malkovich, who is directing the production of the play that will open Thursday at the Circle in the Square. ''At that time it was novel to portray a soldier as someone who carried chocolate instead of cartridges in his belt and didn't go along with knee-jerk patriotism - a mercenary who regarded soldiering merely as a job. Today we know pretty much that war is terrible and that people who survive suffer painful traumas that last many years.'' But in exploring the romantic myths of war and love, Shaw also raised questions about the nature of masculinity and femininity that are still relevant today. What is it to be a man or woman in the modern world?